In living rooms across Buckhead, Vinings, and Sandy Springs, a quiet movement has taken root — changing lives thousands of miles away.
Charles Wangondu, owner of a pest control business serving these three communities, has turned his small circle of loyal customers into a force for good, raising nearly $700,000 to rebuild schools in his homeland of Kenya.
Because of their work, about 1,000 children are attending schools with tile or wood floors instead of dirt ones and with bathrooms with multiple stalls, toilets, sinks, and running water instead of outdoor latrines.
Credit: Phil Skinner
Credit: Phil Skinner
“The goal is to contribute toward a more prosperous future for communities of Kenyan children,” said David Kirkpatrick, one of Wangondu’s longtime customers and chairman of the board of his nonprofit. “We are three schools into this journey. We focus on one school at a time. The before and after are quite staggering.”
A deeply personal mission
Born the eighth of nine children, Wangondu and his siblings were left to fend for themselves in the Kenyan town of Thomson after their mother’s death and their father’s remarriage. Wangondu was 6 at the time.
There were days when, while other students went home to lunch with their mothers, they’d have a cup of water, which helped to suppress the hunger pangs.
School was often out of reach, not just because it was a long walk but also because they couldn’t come up with the $10 fee that each household was expected to pay for their children’s education.
“We went through a lot,” Wangondu said.
His life took a turn for the better when one of his married sisters, a teacher, took him and his younger brother into her home, allowing him to finally focus on his studies and his love of sports. That dedication earned him a track scholarship to college in Atlanta. To make money while in school, he was a valet parking cars, a job that taught him the importance of making connections.
Credit: Photo courtesy of TFalls Foundation
Credit: Photo courtesy of TFalls Foundation
One of the people whose cars he parked owned a major pest control company and gave him a job. By 2008, he was ready to strike out on his own, creating a pest control company that, like his foundation, is named Tfalls, after Thomson, a town that still has his heart and a 243-foot waterfall.
As his company grew, so did Wangond’s desire to give back. For years, he sent food, clothing and money back to Thomson to help the local orphans, with whom he felt a kinship. But he wondered if there was something he could do that could have a bigger impact.
He decided to focus on education and approached Kirkpatrick, who’d been a customer by then for 10 years, knew his life story, and had helped with clothing donations for Kenya.
“One day, we had a conversation about how he’d like to take it to a higher level,” Kirkpatrick said.
Living room launch
A small gathering at Kirkpatrick’s house sparked the movement. Some of Wangondu’s pest control clients came, as did some of Kirkpatrick’s neighbors. Equipped with a PowerPoint presentation, Wangondu won over the small group, which got the ball rolling on other small meetings and offers of support.
Lezlie Renee’ Pipes, an Atlanta philanthropist, said she was ready to sign up to help after seeing a single picture of a latrine that all of the students at a K-8 school were using.
Credit: Photo courtesy of the TFalls Foundation
Credit: Photo courtesy of the TFalls Foundation
“I said: “That’s not acceptable to me,” she said. “I said I will do anything to help you with that.”
Wangondu would have been grateful for a single modern bathroom in each school, but Pipes and other board members wanted to do more.
“Let’s do it right,” Pipes recalled saying. “This is something we are going to be proud of and put our names on.”
Renovations on the first school were completed in 2022, and on the second in 2023. The third opens this year, and plans are already in the works for the next three.
The first school has a total of 16 boys’ and girls’ bathrooms and saw its test scores jump 16% after the renovations were complete.
“As one would expect, the testing is showing that better learning conditions are leading to better educated young people,” Kirkpatrick said.
Every renovated school opens to big fanfare back in Kenya. Politicians give speeches and cut ribbons, and there’s singing and dancing in the streets. Each community is so grateful that the locals offer to feed a construction crew of 20 or 30 that the TFalls Foundation has on payroll doing the renovations.
The parents are “100%” vested in the work, too: They are expected to dig by hand each school’s new foundation and take care of the school once renovations are complete, said Harrison Githu, who is overseeing the work in Kenya.
Communities are begging to be the next to have their schools renovated from top to bottom, he said.
Wangondu said: “It’s only because of the people around me that we’ve been able to do so much in such a short time.”
He asked some of his pest control customers to serve on the board of his nonprofit. “Nobody turned me down,” he said smiling.
Kirkpatrick said it’s been amazing.
“It started with a little pebble in the pond, and the ripples have been really powerful,” he said. “I’ve been involved in a lot of other things. But this has turned into something way beyond what I expected.”
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TFalls Foundation’s Projects to Date
Thiru Primary School, with 750 K-8 students
Renovations started in November 2019; delayed by the pandemic, they were completed in March 2022
The work: six classrooms, an administrative block, 16 boys’ and girls’ bathrooms
Cost: $200,000 (Also put another $10,000 into a student meal program)
Mung’Etho School, with 300 K-8 students
Renovations were completed in 2023
The work: four classrooms, an administration block, 14 bathrooms
Cost: $75,000
Muthenegra School, with 850 K-8 students
Renovations started in January of this year and are expected to be completed soon
The work: six classrooms, an administrative block, 16 total boys’ and girls’ bathrooms
Costs: $215,000 (estimate)
Source: TFalls Foundation
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Money raised year-by-year
Here’s what the TFalls Foundation has raised to give schools much needed improvements
2018: $1,645
2019: $45,545
2020: $53,384
2021: $106, 273
2022: $94,145
2023: $220,760
2024: $171,854*
Total $693,606
*Total through 9/30/2024
To learn how you can help, visit www.tfallsfoundation.org/support-us.
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