Michelle Arthur - My First Blog Post

Jeccy’s story :

This is her story:

I was brought up in Kwa Njenga by a single mother who had nothing, we were very poor. Our house, which was one room, was made with wood, with some sides being made of sacks. We didn’t have a proper door, we just had a piece of wood that you would have to pick up and move when you wanted to come in or go out. It had no floor, no windows and the roof was full of holes, so the rain came in. We were thankful at that time because we didn’t know any other home than that one. Actually, our house, when the rains came, it was full of water inside, so we put the table on the bed so we could cook with a stove.

We had one bed, which someone had given to my mother, one stool and a few plates and we had a tin, which sometimes when it was raining we could use as a toilet. Then we would empty it in the drainage outside. We didn’t have electricity, we didn’t have running water or washrooms. We used to have flying toilets (this involved using a paper bag and then throwing it away when you were done).

Life was very difficult. Even having a meal 3 times a day was difficult for me, my brother and my mother. Because she was sickly she could not go looking for a job and there were times when people wouldn’t come through for us, because they also had their lives. There was a time when we relied on neighbours who would bring us food to eat. The other days that they didn’t come, we didn’t have food.

I used to go and beg for food, and I remember there was a time when my mother was bedridden completely and she had to be taken to hospital, where she stayed for almost 1 ½ years. So me and my brother were living in the house alone, in that shack. I had to plead with the priest to make that house for us, because where we were living was not a good house at all. When it was raining we would feel like we were outside. After school, I had to remove my uniform to go and look for food for my brother and I. I did the laundry for him. I got the food, cooked the food, everything I did.

I collected water but it was only 2-3 metres away. There was a company around us that had free water but it was salt water. Later someone did something with it and then it no longer existed.

When I was growing up I didn’t know any fun because I am the responsible one, so what I am thinking is, do we have supper? Tomorrow what will we have?

We were often unable to go to school because we had no school fees. Someone came from the Catholic Church (where we did Sunday School) and she took us to school, me and my brother, because my mother at that time was sickly. She was HIV+ but we did not know that. It was a Catholic sister who took us to school and she took us through until grade 8. After that she said she could no longer help because it had not been her plan to help us, but she thought it was best that she did when she was asked to help a little bit. She did help and I am so grateful.

And sometimes before the Catholic sister came through we didn’t have school fees so we would be sent back home. So me and my brother are at home, we are sad, no food, no school uniforms and we are just sitting there.

It was very tough because I had to look for other means for my brother and I to go back to school, to high school. I took myself to the church again and I talked to the priest. He asked me why I was not in school when others are in school? I told him my mother did not have money to send us to school and I had tried to get money but had not managed to. He said he would look into it but promised nothing.

I didn’t hear anything, so I took myself back to the priest and told him, if you don’t help me I know my life will not be good, and I really want to go back to school, me and my brother.

The priest said he was really happy that I wanted to go to school and that I had gone back to see him, because it should have been my mother going to see him. He was impressed. He asked where my mother was, and I told him she was sick again. He used to come and pray for her in her sick bed. I asked him, if I don’t do this, who else will do it for me? There were no family members or relatives of my mother who could help. Fortunately the manager of a place called American Share (americanshare.com) passed by as I was talking to the priest. Father pleaded with him and asked him to do him one favour. The manager said he would do anything for him. The priest said, ‘please send this beautiful girl to school for me.’ The manager asked if that was all, and the priest said yes. So that is how I got my sponsorship to high school through American Share.

I hadn’t got a high enough mark for what they were sending children to school with. It was 300 and I only had 280. The manager asked me, ‘what marks do you have?’ I told him and he said to go to his office on Monday.

I went home and told my mum, she was sick but she got up and sat down. She said to me, God is doing something for you. I said yes! I was happy that I was going back to school, but what about my brother? He had another year left in school and then he would not be able to go to high school. My mother told me, I should not worry about him, because you have asked God for what you wanted and He has given it to you. Focus on going back to school and leave your brother and God will deal with the issues. This is not for you to do it for him.

I had stayed a whole year out of school, American Share came and took a case study on me, my family and our house.

The day came for me to go back to school, which was boarding school, but I was still not contented because of the condition and the situation at home, with a sickly mother who I am leaving behind with no one to look after her. My brother didn’t do much like I did. I was like the mother, the responsible one in the house.

So I went back to school, and I thank God that He gave me courage to go back to school. I studied for 2 years and then I went back, I still found my mother in her sick bed. She had no one to look after her but she tried to make it look like she was okay, that she could do things, but I knew in the back of my mind that she was pretending because I was there.

I kept praying. It kept coming back to my thinking, if my mother dies what will happen to me and my brother?

In the slums, the government do not do much. Sometimes the NGOs come and say they need certain groups of people. One came for HIV patients, and my mother got into a group with other HIV+ patients, they were encouraging one another. And she got out of her sick bed and was a bit

better now because they gave her medication too.

So she was trying to get odd jobs, like washing the plates. And washing the plates in the slum, for the Muslims, is like 20 shillings (less than 15p or 20c). Doing the laundry in the slum is not like doing in Imara or the other estates, you get 100 shillings (less than 70p or 90c). But it was something and we were not paying any rent. She would get what she could and then she would come back and buy food for us. Then the food stuff was very cheap and that is how we survived.

So we grew up loving one another, encouraging one another and visiting one another, supporting one another when we could.

Some people would ask you how can someone live in the slums, how can you survive there?

This one friend, I took her to my home, she was close to me. I told her where I came from. Because now I am out of the slum and I’m in a nice place, American Share took people to very nice schools. There are these nice washrooms and running water. This was amazing to me. I never knew that this existed and asked them how to use it. My friends told me they had these in their homes and asked me where I came from. I told them I was from the slums, but most times I was in school I didn’t speak much. I was not that friendly because I felt like I was from a different place from where they were from. Their parents came in big cars and no one came to visit me, because my mother was sick. So that gave me a lot of questions, am I really living in this place where other people are not seeing the problems that we live with?

Even though we were 10 of us (students supported by American Share from the slum in the school), we thought differently. My friends said, we have this, we are together in the same school as them, so that encouraged me too. This one friend told me, it doesn’t matter where we come from, all that matters is that we receive an education and God will bless us and we will get jobs and better our lives, and that of our parents.

The ones we were schooling with were so kind, so loving. I could go to school without anything, without sanitary pads but my friends will tell me, feel free, you can use whatever you want. This one friend of mine used to carry two toothpaste, two pads, etc., because she had explained to her mother about me and so her mum bought extra for me. So that is how I survived in school. I thank God, she came through for me. She told me not to worry, we can share everything together.

I was happy going back to school. Being at home I was still thinking a lot. At that time I wondered if there was any other child who is suffering like I am? And why is it me? There are other children and their parents are there, they are in good health, they are providing, why me? So when I was at school it was different.

Every Christmas the Catholic sister would call all the children who were attending that Sunday school and there were people who were donating clothes and shoes. So sister would come and I would be given a beautiful dress, my brother given trousers and a shirt. The sister would buy biscuits and drinks and we would enjoy these with the other kids. Yes, they were the only memories that I have that are happy.

Life in the slums is difficult, especially living in the slums. You can imagine these kids who are going to school without electricity, in the evening, even doing their homework is difficult. Even sometimes when we don’t have electricity we use oil lamps, sometimes you end up burning your house, everything goes and now you have to depend on other people to provide for you. And also, the toilets, there are no toilets in the slum, it’s very difficult.

But I have come to see, since I have grown, that we couldn’t see that we shouldn’t live in this condition, because we couldn’t come out to nice places, to the estates, we were just there. So we encouraged each other. The problem is we didn’t know that we could have a toilet, that was not in our minds, that we could have proper sanitation and everything. We just found ourselves there in that slums.

When I finished school there was a company starting at Mikato Safari (part of American Share) and they called us and told us that they wanted us to help. Instead of staying at home, we could help there and make reusable sanitary towels and they paid 150 shillings (about £1) a day. So that would provide a meal a day, because my mum was still struggling. I did that for almost 2 years.

And then there was a job that came up for the census in Kenya. One of my friends said to me, why can we not try this job, and we did try and I worked for 1 ½ months. Mikato Safari allowed me to go and work and I got 24000 shillings (about 800 shillings or £5.30 a day). That was my first salary and I was so happy. Even when I was going back home I was scared that people would steal it from me.

So with that 24000 shilling I built my mum’s house. I bought iron sheets and I looked for workmen (2 of them) and built 4 rooms, they did a very good job, I was very happy.

Mikato Safari saw how hard I was working, especially when I built a house for my mother, they were so impressed. My social worker told me, your sponsor is very old, she has just retired and she lost her sight, so she just wants to do a one year thing. So go and look for a college so you can study whatever you want. I told her I had no idea what I wanted to do, because as I was growing up I had wanted to be a journalist, but because of the situation at home, and at school I am not concentrating because I’m waiting for someone to come and tell me that my mother has died. That was my thoughts at that time and so I didn’t perform well. I told her, help me get something that I can do.

But still I was in the community, and there were those who believed that I could speak for others, like the village elders. There were some seminars that they used to call us to, like you have to be there to speak on behalf of the other youths, speak on behalf of the other children that have come from this slum, so that someone can bring something or provide something for us that would enhance our community or environment.

So I used to go to those seminars and get paid. And sometimes it’s an NGO that say this is what we want you to do, we will take you for a training of 3 months and then you go back to the community and teach them, train them. So I did that. So the social worker knew I was doing this and she asked, why can’t you do social work? I said, yes, I have never thought about it, what about it? She said it was just working in the community and I said yes, I love doing that, that is what I have been doing but I didn’t know it was social work. She said she would find me someone to help me get a good school for just one year and they would pay my school fees. That is how I went and got admission to South B and started school.

My brother was still in school and there was no one to pay his school fees, and I am the one who is still going to ask people for money so that he can finish his high school. But I thank God I finished.

I got frustrated because when I finished my training I couldn’t get a job. The only jobs I could get were 2-3 month jobs that were not very well paid, though it was something. Then there was a time when there was none, you could go into the offices, look around and there was no one there to give you a job. So I gave up.

When I gave up I got involved with a boyfriend, this is how I got my first born. That was when I thought, now my life has ended. No one is there. I’ve lost everything.

But then another organisation came and they said they were looking for someone called Jecinta, does anyone know her and then they came to my mum’s house. I told them I had already given birth to my son and I don’t think I can do anything. They said, no, we are looking for people like you, we want you, those who have given birth at early age, we want to work with you. So that we can tell other youths that it can work, even if life didn’t take you where you thought it would. So that is how they gave me a job and they trained me also. They trained me in financial literacy, life skills, entrepreneurship, and then later I started training other people.

After the 6 months, they told me you are good enough to work in an office. I told them I wasn’t ready because of my baby, he was still very small. They said it’s okay, if you’re not ready for the office, you can continue to train different people in the slums, as your baby grows because we don’t want to separate you from your baby.

While I was doing that work another NGO also came and this one was similar to what we are doing at OEW. She was an African American, she said she was looking for someone who had worked in the community in the slums and who would help them get the children who were in commercial sex working, and I said yes, I can do that. She asked me how I was going to do it and I said, give me 3 weeks, I will find some people to help me and we will work out how we can get you these kids. It was in a different slum, not Kwa Njenga.

So she told me you are going to be working for 4 months, are you ready and are you okay? I told them I would think about it and later Pastor Julius came and said, yes, you have to do this job. Later, my mother told me, you can leave the baby with me, it is okay, just leave baby with me and go and do the job. That is how I ended up as a social worker there.

Then later after 2 years, things happened that meant I knew I shouldn’t be in that place and so I had to quit my job.

Then Maggie came and we started this job (On Eagle’s Wings). After Maggie came, I took myself back to school and did my diploma in social worker

. I love doing the work I’m doing because someone came through for me and I want to do the same. There are people out there with good hearts and as they hold our hands, especially those living in the slums, they help make us better people. For I can say, I was raised here and I did it, I am an example of that.

I don’t live in the slum anymore. With the first NGO job I looked for a better place for me and my son. I found a single room outside of the slum that was paying 3500 shilling a month and I started my life from there. Even the father was there, my husband, but he did not have a good job but we tried to work things out. Thankfully he got a job in the Defence Forces and then we moved!

For the first 9 months I was the provider in the house, because he didn’t have any job. I was doing all the expenses in the house, like the rent, putting food on the table. Later as we prayed, because we knew he would get a job, he had good credentials from school. He had done engineering at college and I knew that one day he would get a job, but I didn’t know what.

He went into the Defence Forces, life pushed us that way. Someone came one day and said people are applying for a job with the defence force if he is ready or willing to. I told him you have no choice, you just have to go and do it because I am the provider. I can’t do this, when you are here and not doing anything.

So he had to apply and got a job. So for 9 months he went for training without bringing any money. He was not paid during his training. I was doing the same things I had done, taking care of my baby, after the 9 months thats when he came back and took his role.

His family and my family thought he would come home with a lot of money. I remember I sat him down and said people are thinking you have come with a lot of money and even they are asking me, when will you give out the money, and he told me he was not given any money. And even allowances during the training, he was given none. I remember there was a time when I was sending him some money for his upkeep while he was in the training. So he told me there was no money and that we had to explain that to the families.

We live on two salaries now but they are not enough. We have to manage with it. For him, he has his family, his mother and father are not well off. I’m also looking after my mother in the slums, and though she doesn’t want to move I’m still the one taking care of her, like paying her bills, her food and all that. The same for the upkeep of our children, sending one of them to school, and for us, our upkeep.

God made a big difference as I grew up. When I was going to the Sunday school, I can say that knowing God, even though I didn’t know Him that much, I knew there was a God and I knew when I prayed to Him, He would help me. I remember even when I was a little girl there was a time I knelt down, and I remembered the Sunday school teacher saying there is nothing God cannot hear, every question God will answer. So I knelt down, at that time we were going through a lot of problems with my family, my mother. I remember that I told God please God we need to change this life that we are living, at least better it for us, make it better so that we can also help. You know that I relied on getting used clothes from other people, if they don’t give me, I go without clothes, food the same and even when you are at school you feel uncomfortable, you didn’t carry your lunch, someone has lunch there. Concentration in the classes, you can’t concentrate. But God came through, I can say that. Even if I was praying, I didn’t pray the rosary, I just used to kneel down and tell God all my things, tell Him, please God, if you are there, please come through, please hear me out. This life is too much, I need you and He came through!

“I hope you have enjoyed and been encouraged by Jeccy’s story. I have kept as much in her own words as I could. I am blown away by the generous heart of this young lady, as she seeks to love well those children who are still living in the slums. It has been my privilege to serve alongside her.
Adventures with Jesus! Happy heart! Blessed indeed!”

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