Who Cares for the Carer?

Every morning when I was 9yrs old, I had a habit of speaking loudly to the mirror as if giving a speech; on an imaginary stage I imitated famous presenters in the world. To amplify my voice, my shoe or a tooth brush will be the microphone. My speech and singing will wake up my family and this will satisfy me. Someone heard my voice.

I am the ‘Bronze born’ in a family of 7 children. Our last born is male; the list of girls would be endless until when a male child is born. At 10 years old in primary school, I joined the theatre club, winning district and national awards for the school for best poet and actress. I also joined the Kenya Girl Guide Association movement that allowed me to offer community services. My involvements continued in high school, where my article in a journalist club, blew a whistle on sexual harassment from a male teacher.

Mom and Dad tested HIV positive in 2003 and responsibilities shifted. I had to use my gained skills to fund my college and support my siblings. Challenges are temporary and should take us to the next level. I was enrolled in a national TV drama and volunteered to facilitate sessions for community groups in HIV prevention, care and support, sexual and reproductive health issues. I started writing personal journals and poems.
Population Services International hired my services in the Maternal Child Health program and currently, in the Sexual and gender based violence program in one of the Africa biggest slum, Kibera. I was born to serve my community through listening to their issues, assist them to recognize and accept the problem, causes, consequences, take them through a cost benefit analysis for prevention and lastly, to trigger commitment to change.

My personal story was published in a national newspaper once and the journalist referred me to PulseWire community. The women faces on the website touched my soul! PulseWire is my first blog that will only focus on women issues. My goal for the blog is to achieve high profile visibility thereby ensuring that discussions that take place at the household, school, village, street level are amplified into the chambers of those who have the responsibility to listen and the power to act to make a difference in the lives of young and older women. Voice of Our Future (VOF) has unveiled my eyes to share stories. It allows me to speak up, express myself and amplify the right positive voice and reduce the negative voices into whispers.

VOF is that imagery stage and shoe that I improvised into a microphone when I was 9 years ago.

I will share pages of my journal that talks about the heroes in my community. VOF is already introducing me to amazing ambassadors of Change that caused me to arise.
Nelson Mandela once said that “sometimes it falls on a generation to be great. You can be that generation”. VOF is that generation that cares.