Part 1: Walking my way out of poverty I was born and raised in Korogocho, one of the largest slums in Nairobi. In Swahili, Korogocho means ‘crowded shoulder to shoulder’. That’s how we lived, with my parents and nine siblings all in one room. My … Continue readingRaphael: “I was a slumdog who dared to dream”
What most people don’t know about me is that I’m a fully trained engineer, but I veered off that path to pursue that which sets my heart on fire – working with underprivileged children in the slums of Nairobi. I studied telecommunications and information engineering … Continue readingEsther: “My heart was always in community development”
In my community, you do not qualify as a woman if you have not undergone Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). My siblings all went through it and I was lucky enough to escape the dreaded cut. My grandmother, who was a strong advocate of the practice, … Continue readingJanet: “FGM does not define you as a woman”
Growing up in a big polygamous family, with my mom being the fourth wife had a big impact on how we were raised and who I became. She was a fishmonger bringing fish from Uganda and selling it in Kenya. She would wake up at … Continue readingTopyster: “When I think of my mum’s limitations, mine pale”
During the 2007 general elections in Kenya, our family was forcefully evicted out of Mumias, following the heavily contested polls because we are from a different tribe, not indigenous to the area. Our house was burnt down forcing us to move back to our ancestral … Continue readingGitau: “We were evicted from a place we called home for 22 years”