By Crista C Gray on behalf of Catherine Wanjohi | US-based volunteer on behalf of Founder/CEO
We held our dinner on the 9th Oct in a hotel called Panorama in Naivasha. Our VIP guest was Lucia Kinuthia, who was also at the centre of putting this event together. Mrs. Kinuthia commissioned the Women One Stop Canter on September 5, 2014 and is considered our Patron of Life Bloom. However, due to a family emergency, she was unable to make it. Her husband, the Governor of Nakuru County, came in her sted.
Security was enhanced, the Naivasha based Members of County Assembly began trickling in, and the Governor Mbugua Kinuthia arrived at 7pm. He was accompanied by three members of county assembly, the County Secretary, and the County Secretary's wife.
Two of Life Bloom's Peer Mentors -- Esther from Naivasha and Caro from Nairobi -- shared their experiences in sex work, their choice to join Life Bloom, and the story of their transformation.
Esther, a primary school drop out who is now an administrator with a local NGO, moved the audience to tears. Esther is a beneficiary of the computers skills training sponsored through the Global Women Fund in 2010.
Caro is a young woman who joined the Entrepreneurship and Leadership class in Nairobi in 2013. The first time Catherine Wanjohi, the Founder and CEO of LBSI, met her was in class; their eyes held and both knew they had a shared history. Caro was Catherine's student when she was a high school principal, which Caro disclosed in front of her classmates.
The Governor asked the two mentors to reach out to him through Life Bloom if they needed support to advance their studies. He gave them each a token of appreciation. He praised the work of Life Bloom in alleviating poverty in the county, asked the Minister for Education, who he had brought along, to work with Catherine Wanjohi to develop a proposal and submit to the county. The event raised around $2,600 USD.
Since the fundraiser, two of Life Bloom mentors' children have bursaries for their education (sponsorship) through the County Assembly and two LBSI mentors have been interviewed for jobs at the hotel where the event was held (the manager stayed on throughout the event and was moved by the two mentors sharing). The women guests present (all of them professional women) requested for a brainstorming meeting to strategize on how to become more involved.
Mrs. Kinuthia told Catherine excitedly the following morning, "Catherine, we have the governor on our side, lets move it!" The journey has only begun.
In Gratitude,
Catherine Wanjohi
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