Educating street children in the Mathare slums

Looking at pictures following my graduation from college makes my heart flutter. For me, this is nothing short of a miracle. It has been a long journey, one I have been blessed to walk through the help of great team of partners and friends.

I’m Omondi, 23 years old and the fifth born in a family of eight who live in the slums of Mathare with my siblings and mother. I was a student at Kiboro Primary School, but I missed numerous classes for lack of school fees which at the time was only Kenyan Shillings 300 ($3) a term. My parents could not afford to raise this amount and meet all the family needs. I can remember my mother asking me to inform the teachers that I’m an orphan so that some fees could be waived. Well, that did not work for long and I was sent away from school soon as my lie was discovered.

My fortunes changed in the year 2003 when a Community Volunteer referred my parents to Mathare Children’s Fund (MCF). I remember my mum telling me that was going to be the first day of my new life. I did not understand what she meant, when I asked her all she said was that, it is going to be the day her prayers were answered. Exactly 4 weeks later, my mum came home singing with joy. I had been outside playing and she screamed my name telling me to come quickly. Her voice was different; it was not filled with anger so I knew she was not calling to ask why the house was not as clean as she left it. I walked towards her, unsure what this was about, she picked me up dancing saying I will be going back to school in the new term. Mathare Children’s Fund had selected me as one of the beneficiaries of their sponsorship program. I was happy, looking forward to going back to school. I had missed 2 school terms as priority was given to my elder siblings who were further in their schooling.

I was supported from primary school, secondary school all the way to University. Mathare Children’s Fund paid my tuition fees, at the same time they catered for all school materials needed and met all my medical needs. It was hard to believe that I would never be sent home for lack of fees; the generosity of MCF and its partners and my mum’s constant reminder of my good fortune pushed me to work hard in school. It was in high school that I was voted the most disciplined student by the teachers and made the school senior prefect and also school projects council member. My academic performance in high school was good as I never scored less than B-(Minus) in my overall grades. I finished my high school in the year 2013 and scored B- and by then that was not a government sponsor grade for the university, so I had to go for an alternative and I enrolled for a diploma in laboratory science at Thika School of Medical Health Sciences, a three year course that Mathare Children’s Fund paid for together with my accommodation fee. I completed my classes in December 2016. I’m a well experienced medical laboratory technologist having worked in Mama Lucy Hospital at Embakasi and Gertrude’s Children Hospital at Muthaiga as an intern in the year 2017.  

Since then, I have been an intern at Marura Nursing Hospital but now having graduated on the 27^th July 2018, it’s my hope that I will be absorbed by the hospital as a permanent staff. I will always be a good ambassador of the Mathare Children’s Fund panairobi because their intervention made me realize my dreams.

• Omondi.docx (DOCX)