Two Mount Saint Agnes Academy Girls will be going on to university in September knowing that they did more than just earn good grades in high school.

Chelsea Soares and Tiffany Sousa, 17, spent the last four years of high school helping to raise over $21,000 for orphans in Kenya.

This week, they presented the cheque to organiser Andrew Bickham.

Mr. Bickham made the original appeal to the community after visiting the Kenyan orphans at The St. Nicholas Community Development Centre in Nairobi.

"We first became interested in helping in 2006 after watching an Oprah episode about Kenya," said Chelsea Soares. "We also watched a movie about it.

"Our religion teacher knew Mr. Bickham. Mr. Bickham goes to Africa every so often and he told us about an orphanage there."

Their religion teacher left the island, so Anna Faria took over helping them.

"We started with bake sales," Miss Soares said. "We did a dinner bingo afterward. We had grub days.

"This year, grade four students did a talent show that raised a lot of money."

Miss Soares said the dinner bingo was probably the most challenging event to arrange.

"It took a lot of planning, and getting everything sorted out was hard," she said. "There were 200 people at the bingo."

"We had no idea we would raise $21,000. We just thought we would ask the community."

Both girls are now off to Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

"Doing this was an accomplishment," said Miss Sousa. "We didn't intend to do this. We thought it would be a little project, but it grew.

"Now we are leaving MSA we are hoping that everyone will continue doing something and won't just drop it."

The girls said they would love to one day go to Kenya and see what the money raised has produced.

"Maybe we'll be able to go and see it when the project is finished," said Miss Sousa.

Mr. Bickham, who works for Argus Insurance, said he frequently goes to Kenya because he has relatives there.

"The money raised will go towards building new classrooms for the St. Nicholas Community Development Centre," said Mr. Bickham. "The orphanage is based on the outskirts of Nairobi.

"It has partial boarding and partial day students."

The children who use the orphanage are generally orphaned by the AIDS virus or by political violence that erupted two years ago.

"It is a very basic school," said Mr. Bickham. "There is no relationship to where we are now.

"I have been visiting since 1991. It is really through my friends and colleagues and work associates, we have been donating various things over the years. We have been able to provide classroom furniture and general stuff like tiles for their kitchen."

He said previously, the kitchen was just a room with pots and an earthen floor.

"I was shocked the first time I visited," he said. "I think anyone would be from a place as wealthy as Bermuda.

"We all have our gadgets and materialistic things. Life in developing countries is pretty harsh on a day by day basis. These children wake up and think, 'am I going to get enough food and water for the day'."

He said the centre provides shelter and food.

"There are children who have no parents, but have relatives who give them a home, but can't afford to clothe or feed them," he said. "So that is where the day schoolers come from.

"It is a tragic environment and you can't help but be moved by what you see there."

Mr. Bickham said he took photographs of the MSA girls who were helping to show the students in Kenya.

"Every time I visit the whole school comes out and sings a special Kenya welcome song," the said. "That is very touching.

"A picture of Chelsea and Tiffany appeared in the Royal Gazette previously. I took them a copy of the newspaper.

"I wanted them to put a face to the people who were helping them.

"The little boys thought the girls were very beautiful. They found it very difficult to understand that people so far away could care so much about them."

For more information, check out the St. Nicholas website at http://www.ackenya.org/institutions/st_nicholas.html.