SHOFCO

"I and my other two brothers live with our mother, who has been single for many years. My mother has always encouraged me to be of good faith despite so many challenges in our family. My head teacher has picked me from nothing and helped me manage my primary education and I hope to also touch another person with a good heart to help me go to secondary school in order to achieve my dreams. After Form 4, I aim to get an A grade on my exams that will enable me to join university. In university I would like to study well for me to become a journalist. The reason why I would like to be a journalist is that I will have an opportunity to know what is happening in daily life, especially where people undergo hardship (i.e. poverty, lack of water, children without going to school, orphans). I will be able to bring these issues to the media and good citizens will be able to see, read, and visit such people. I also have a vision to start a project that will be generating money to help all the needy children like me. "

Clinton’s mother works as a casual laborer, and she has struggled to pay all the family’s expenses. He was sometimes sent home for lack of school fees. Clinton dreams of having a better future, and believes he can achieve this dream through becoming a pilot. He not only wishes to see different parts of the world, but he also hopes that by securing a decent living, he can support his siblings and his mother.

Ivin's parent's are day laborers and do not make enough money to pay her school fees. She has been able to attend school this far based on donations from a local church. She longs to continue to a higher level in school and to make her parents proud. She currently lives in a one room house with both her parents and her two siblings. She often has to go to school without eating breakfast first. She longs to finish school and improve the prospects for her family.

Josephine is a driven and dedicated student. She aims to perform well in secondary school so that she continue her studies at Kenyatta University. While at university, she wants to study education and theology, and she dreams of someday being a journalist. She also would like to own a children's home for babies two years and under so that she can give back to them and help them grow the same way that her mother did for her. Her mother owns her own business and Josephine is inspired by her mother's hard work and success.

My name is Phenny Adhiambo, I joined Moi Girls Academy from Karama Academy after attaining 339 marks on the KCPE. I am 14 years old and working very hard to achieve good grades. My father ran away from us for his second wife and left us with our poor mother, lonely and hungry in the house. We could not manage the school fees but thanks to the SHOFCO scholarship program I am able to attend school. I have had challenges in school as well, as I do not have the basic learning materials. Now that we are at home, we still lack food and can go a whole day without food at all. There is no proper hygiene, no access to clean water especially at this time of the coronavirus. Life is so hard and despite everything, in a family of five, two sisters, brother and a mother, all of us are alive and are in good health.

My name is Paul Kimetu, 16 years old. I went to Ayany Primary School where I scored 323 marks on the KCPE and later joined Muindi Mbingu Boys High School located in Machakos county. When I joined High school I had a challenge in time management, this included waking up for down preps, but with time I adjusted. The Covid -19 outbreak disrupted everything and we are now at home. SHOFCO had paid my full term school fees and that was the reason I had to work hard. The truth is that if it were not for the scholarship program, I would not have been in school. I'm also proud of my achievement, at school we did a test and I scored a B+. My parents are jobless and are doing odd jobs to provide for our needs, even though we still can not afford three meals a day.