Peter Tabichi already taught in a school with modern facilities and good equipment. He chose to leave it to teach in a place where even connecting to the Internet could become a problem.
Its new destination was Keriko Mixed Day Secondary School, in the rural village of Pwani, in the Rift Valley of Kenya.
The change was huge.
Overcrowded classes, just one computer, unreliable Internet connection and limited scientific equipment. But the greatest difficulty was not inside the laboratories.
She was in student life.
According to the data reported by the Global Teacher Prize, about 95% came from poor families. Almost one out of three was orphaned or had one parent.
Tabichi, a teacher of mathematics and science and Franciscan friars, then decided that his work would not stop at the door of the court.
He began to allocate about 80% of his monthly salary to help poorer people in the community. He also paid school fees and helped students in difficulty who risked not being able to continue their studies.
But his boys didn't just offer financial support.
Those who had the opportunity to compete also on the scientific level with students from much more equipped schools.
He empowered the Science Club and began to follow projects capable of transforming the materials and knowledge available into something concrete.
The results arrived.
A school team developed a device designed to help blind and deaf people measure objects, winning the category reserved for public schools at the Kenyan National Science and Engineering Fair.
Another project, based on the use of local plant material to produce electricity, was recognized by the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Then, in March 2019, Peter Tabichi's name exceeded Kenya's boundaries.
Between over 10,000 applications from 179 countries, he was chosen as the winner of the Global Teacher Prize.
The prize was worth a million dollars.
Yet, even when the world began to tell its story, Tabichi continued to shift attention to its students, other teachers and the possibilities of young Africans.
Because the million dollars represents only the most visible chapter of the story.
The decisive part had happened before, when no one rewarded him.
A teacher had voluntarily left a school with more resources to go where those resources were missing. He had used much of his salary to help the community and had continued to ask his students to think big.
His experience demonstrated something that, alone, no perfectly equipped laboratory can guarantee: having fewer tools can limit the opportunities, but does not determine the talent of those who should use them.