I met Daniel (Danny) Wainaina and Samuel (MC) Kiriro in July 2011 when I went to see the sites where we would teach with Sauder Africa Initiative that summer. It was my first time in Mathare Valley slum and my impression of two of them was that they know exactly what they are doing every step of the way.
Both of them were brought up in Mathare so they know every nook and cranny of the place. They work in Maji Mazuri Centre International as coordinators and actively go out to community in Mathare to seek youth in trouble and try to get them on the right track. I was very impressed with their presentation during our UBC-Strathmore Bootcamp and the knowledge they shared with us. And they are entrepreneurs themselves – Danny has been running a small general shop for 10 years and MC has “ready food” store for 7. He started by selling chicken and grew his business purely from his profits which is a very impressive achievement. I had to smile when they expressed the interest to take our course next year – I am sure they can teach it with us! What they forgot to mention that both of them are back at school, getting degrees in social work and community development. I learnt that from one of their colleagues by accident just before I left Kenya.
More I interacted with MC and Danny, the more I was convinced that we found a perfect site for our classes. It may be challenging for us sometimes to stay in touch with our students but I know that as long as these two are going to be around, we will have students in the class.
I was eager to meet other staff members of Maji Mazuri and I was not disappointed. It is an enthusiastic and passionate team led by the founder and director Wanjiku Kironyo. I was impressed by all of the programs the organization runs. I was also shocked that some of the people from Mathare have never crossed the borders of the place. They are worried that if they go out to city, the police will arrest them and/or is looking for them. It is almost unimaginable for me and I only hope that we will be able to help in any way we can to “spread the wings” of our Mathare students.
this is very impressive and i appreciate it so much thanks Martina.
ReplyDeleteI like the whole story. It reminds me a lot about myself and where i have come from
ReplyDeleteI in turn have to echo that the above mentioned ["Danny" and "MC"]have not only been like brothers to us but also mentors, interacting with them makes you open up your mind and have many of perspectives inclined to molding oneself as a youth. I have learnt much from them a great deal so to say.
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