Kenya Connect

Emmaculate is the last born in a family of three; one sister and one brother. Her parents rely on subsistence farming for livelihood, which has been greatly affected by the changing climate. While in primary school, Emmaculate spent most of the time at home while the other students were at school. This was because of lack of finances to cater for some of the requirements at school. This did not stop her but instead propelled her towards achieving her dream of becoming a cardiologist in order to save lives. Her role model is Barack Obama and she likes his phrase of ‘Yes we can’. Moreover, she likes reading story books during her free time.

Felix is the last born in a family of four. He stays with his grandmother. Their father abandoned them when he was 10 years old. His mother has been struggling to single handedly take care of the family. He loves reading and playing football and wants to be a university professor.

Charles is an orphaned boy who is determined and hardworking. His single mother passed on in 2009, leaving him under the care of his aged grandparents. He is the only child in his family. Charles did his national exam and emerged to be the best student in his class! His elderly grandparents are not in a position to cater for his secondary school fees since they have no source of income. Charles has always chased his dream of becoming a nurse and he believes that once you choose hope, anything is possible. He is a fan of playing football during his leisure time.

Matata is a daring young boy who believes that success is often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable. He is the last born in a family of four. His parents are unemployed and largely depend on subsistence farming, which has been negatively affected by frequent severe droughts. Most of the rural roads in his village are very impassable and this has pushed him towards achieving his dream of becoming an engineer. Since Matata was a young boy, he has always liked playing football not only at home but also in school and he was the goalkeeper for his school team.

Fiona is the last born in a family of three. She lives with both her parents who are casual labourers. Her mother had a major surgery on her left hand in 2020. This made them sell part of their property to take care of the medical bills and thus reducing their income significantly and again making it very difficult for them to take care of the education bills of their children. Fiona drew her inspiration to pursue success from her Math teacher and she aspires to be a civil engineer to make contributions in the development of infrastructure in her village.

Esther is a second-born child in a family of four. She is driven by the desire to always be of help to the people in the community and that has motivated her to aspire to become a doctor. She has faced a lot of challenges growing up but has been very resilient, believing that hard work never goes unrewarded.