Jane from Kenya

The following is Jane’s story, written in her own words:

My name is Jane and I have four older brothers and one older sister. What I recall in my past is a harsh life, living with my mother. Mum was the breadwinner and, most of the time, we would go hungry. Sometimes for a week with no food.

The job I remember my mum doing was collecting big stones under the big rocks at riverbanks. Sometimes we would go to dangerous places and fill the sack with stones and then carry them to our farm. My mum would break them into small pieces so those building houses would come and buy them (this happened by chance.) After which, we would spend the entire day farming in order to grow some food for us to keep going.

When the poverty was too much, my brothers decided to go and hustle in order to make a living. Since I was very young, I had to be left with my mum. Life continued. The poverty took the better side of us since my mum got sick and I had nobody to run to for help. It was just me and my mum. My sister had left too and I never knew any aunty or uncle. I remember that mum got to an extent where she would not even walk or eat, she was just there on the bed staring at an empty space.

There was no food. Nobody would help us and not even a neighbor would come to our place to help me take care of Mum. I would spend my day crying and, in the evening, I would go to our local market and collect the spoiled greens such as tomatoes, cassava, and any edible foods. Then I would go back home and boil them and try feeding Mum. She would refuse to eat and the only thing that would calm me was crying till I fell asleep.

Mum died on a Sunday evening. After I went to our church and told one of the priests that I was hungry and Mum was sick, they took me to the convent and gave me food. Then I took them to where Mum was. They sent me meat bones and they prepared soup for Mum. They tried feeding her and then they took her to the hospital. I remember that when she was being carried to the car, she just stared at me. She was wearing a red dress. I never knew that this was the last day I would ever see her.

When Mum was taken away, I was left all alone, I never knew any of my relatives to run to. I remember going to the house and hiding under the bed, feeling so scared, so helpless, so alone. I don’t know how I fell asleep but I was awoken by a hard knock on the door. I was relieved to find that it was my mum’s friend and she took me to her house. She took care of me for a couple of days before I was taken to my grandmother (a person I had never known). I remember on the first day hearing my grandmother warning two boys who were living there that she would beat them to death if she saw them playing with me.

I tried my best to stay away from trouble until Saturday morning when I woke up and found my mum’s coffin beside my bed (I never knew that it was my mum because I had never seen a coffin before). When I saw my brothers and sister, they told me that Mum was dead and that means I would never see her again. Mum was buried that evening. I was introduced to uncles and aunties. They had a meeting to decide what to do with me.

My elder brother fought hard enough to prove that he can take care of me because, though my so-called uncles and aunties looked rich with big cars, he never knew what they would do to me after they had taken me in. So, I came to live with my brother and after some days I was taken to the home sponsored by Many Hopes.

It was a place where I felt loved for the first time in my life, a place where I met different inspiring people and a place that accepted me. Not long after, I joined school, and since day one, I vowed to work hard. Since then, I have been excelling in everything that I do. I have performed well in all my school exams and I have gotten a chance to go to college. Right now, I am studying for a bachelor’s degree in business information technology.

I love all my units and I want to be a business analyst after I finish my studies. My dream is to work abroad so that I can have enough experience and advanced knowledge in order to be able to motivate girls like me as a role model and to finally say that I did it.

On June 7, 2023, Jane graduated college with a bachelor’s degree in Business and I.T. Her journey has been miraculous and she’s a hero. Jane overcame every obstacle you can imagine and she is just getting started. Jane is an example of what you make possible.
Jane is pictured here with Thomas Keown, Founder & CEO of Many Hopes, who was there to cheer her on as she walked across the stage.