Education scholarship.

While the pandemic hold stories of heartache and challenges for many, there are also stories of hope. We want to share with you the story of Faith (not her real name) one of our Kizimani Education Scholarship beneficiaries. It is a story of hope and perseverance.

Faith is a brilliant and hard-working student from the rural community of Kangundo, Kenya who did exceptionally well in the 2013 Kenya National testing for eighth grade students. However, like many families in Kangundo, it was a struggle for her mother to feed the family while also taking care of Faith’s father who has long-term medical issues. Unable to afford tuition to attend high school, 14-year-old Faith languished at home for two entire school years while supporting her mother to do menial jobs to earn an income. Between them, they made less than $5 a day weeding their neighbors’ farms. Stuck in an endless cycle of hard physical labor and barely making enough to put food on the table, Faith’s mother reached out to the Kizimani community workers and asked for help.

Kizimani enrolled Faith into its Education Program whose goal is to break the cycle of poverty by helping vulnerable youth remain in school.

In 2015,  Faith enrolled in high school and was thriving.  Kenyan data shows that 1 in every 5 girls between 15-19 years is either pregnant or already a mother.  This became the case for Faith in 2017.  Kizimani advocated for Faith with the school to allow her to continue her education after the baby was born. With the support of her mother and Kizimani, Faith graduated from high school in 2019 with flying colors. However, in the competitive Kenya education system, she was not accepted to a four-year college and the worldwide pandemic shut down hampered our efforts to collaborate in any post secondary education. This led to Faith spending 2020 at home supporting her mother as she had previously done after elementary school.

In 2021, Faith was offered a job as house help for a distant family friend in the city of Nairobi. It meant leaving her son and all she had ever known. City life was extremely challenging for a young girl who had never lived away from the village, but Faith’s work ethics impressed her employer. He encouraged her to consider going back to school and suggested she pursue a certificate in culinary arts. Remembering how she was supported by the Kizimani Education Program, Faith reached out to Kizimani and asked if we would support her to attend culinary school.

 

Because of your support, Faith was able to continue her education and graduate from a culinary arts college. She is now working as a chef. We believe she has a bright future ahead of her. Your support for Kizimani makes it possible for us to participate in and change the trajectory of vulnerable youth like Faith.