SHOFCO

"My life has been difficult since my parents have no good jobs. We are living from hand to mouth but we care about our lives. My life situation has worsened since my father got in an accident. We are very grateful to god for keeping us alive and giving us a place to lay our heads on. First I would like to finish school and acquire a degree. After that I would like to have a higher standard of living. I would like to open a school and teach children on how to make their dreams come true. I would like to tell other children from the slums that their background doesn't matter. What matters is where they are going, not the challenges that they came from."

"I have faced many challenges such as a lack of textbooks. I had a torn uniform that I could not mend for a very long time. I was brought up in Kibera until class four when my life started to become hard. That's when I was taken to a rural area where I was staying with my grandmother who used to help my mother in paying school fees when she was unable. In fact I want to be a teacher so that I can be able to educate young children from the slums."

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.

"Since we are a family of six children, it has been too difficult for my father to pay my school fees and buy uniforms. I have been getting assistance from church members up to this point. I thank almighty God that the school could provide me books, which allowed me to continue and to finish class 8. I have been brought up in a very humble background and it has been very difficult for my parents to bring daily bread into the house. My aspirations and plans is that I would like to finish high school with high marks. I would then like to join the university of my choice and pursue a degree in mass communication and be a news anchor/ presenter. Since education has no end, I would like to combine my masters and Ph.D. respectively and be a great professor in Kenya."

Deborah Nyaboke Nyakwara of Sironga Girls High School in Kisii, I am 14 years old and I am from the Kibera slum in Nairobi. My parents were unable to get the school fees and through the acces of the SHOFCO Scholarship program I managed to join the school. Still I could not get the boarding essentials and took too long at home waiting for my parents to purchase them. During this pandemic we are at home and the truth is that life is harder here than in school. Most times we go to bed without eating anything. We are also restricted in movement and my parents keep us indoors. We also lack facilitators who can help us as teenagers and encourage us to study than we used to be taught in school. I thank you for your support that reduces the burden on my parents.

"My ambition in the future is to get good grades throughout my high school career. I want to join a campus and study as a cardiologist. I would like to get a job at one of the biggest hospitals in Kenya and also be traveling from place to place treating people with heart problems. In 10 years to come I would like to find myself flying from place to place treating people. My inspiration is to help the poor and educate the children who can't help themselves in which I can form an organization that helps to sponsor those who are in need. I will also not forget these people who helped me go to school. I will help them in any way I can. My personal goal is to help my parents move to a better place and to buy them some of the things that they will want in the years to come."