While we have somewhere between 15 and 20 students in our class, before we arrived we chose 4 with whom we'd work more intensively in the afternoons to make sure that they would get their business plans in great shape by the time our program ended. Our selections were based on the clarity of the business idea applicants had. On the first day, we asked the four whom we plan to work with most closely to tell us a bit about themselves. We thought you might enjoy meeting them:
Quin
Quin's is our only female student. She's a lovely young woman of 19. Her dad died when she was 7, her mom when she was 8, so she was raised by her aunt. She finished Form 4 (i.e., grade 12). She said that she didn't have good enough marks to get into university. She commented of herself that she managed to get through her teen years without experiencing most of the difficulties of many female teens in Kenya: marriage, children, AIDS--she was very proud that she had accomplished this. She doesn't want to marry, or at least not in the near future, because she wants to be independent and make a life for herself. She feels that by going through her teens without some of the "normal" difficulties, she has been able to show others that this can make a difference in one's life. Her greatest hope is to contribute money to an orphanage, to help young children who have lost their parents, and she intends for the profits from the business idea she has (to sell indigenous bananas to retailers in the Kibera community) to go to an orphanage. She has set a goal for herself of going to college in 3 years, so she wants the business to help her be financially stable. She wants to study journalism.
Canto
Canto finished Form 2 (10th grade). He's about 19. He's the product of a broken home, and was raised by his dad, who died in 2001. His dad's death led to him dropping out of school, because he didn't have the finances to continue (schooling is free, but uniforms and books are not.) He started living with his mom after his dad's death, but there are 4 other younger kids. His mother doesn't make enough money to sustain all of them, and since he's the oldest, she really can't give him much help. He noted that he tries to do small jobs, but because he hasn't finished school, it's hard to find a better job. He said he saw working with us as an opportunity, and when he saw the application form, he prayed that he would be chosen by us. He wants to sell fish from the Lakes here, providing a better quality product than what is available currently in Kibera. With the profits from his business he want to earn money to go to school, help some of the other orphans, and also try to grow the business so that he could employ uneducated youths who need jobs.
Steven
Steven is a little older than the other students, perhaps in his mid-20s. He's been living in Kibera for the past five years, finished high school, and managed to go to a polytechnic, where he studied information technology. He recognizes the value of having access to the world through the internet, and wants to set up a Cyber Cafe in Kibera, so that young people would have more access to information. Otherwise, they have to go to Cyber Cafes in town, which is not always easy for them to do. He feels that access to computers could help the people of Kibera be more empowered, and he wants to be able to educate people on using technology
so that they can do more for themselves.
Patrick
Patrick, about 20, lost both of his parents when he was 11. He had to move around among family members, and said he had no real family stability growing up. Patrick had polio as an infant, and as a result of medical mistreatment he drags one of his legs, using a stick to help him get around. He was able to start Form 4, but because of fees, he did not finish it. For that past 3 years he has been helping a cousin run a kerosene depot. He wants to sell kerosene in very small quantities--people buy kerosene to cook with, but they can't always afford it in the quantities sold, so he wants to fill this niche. He noted that some people try to buy just the amount they need in the morning, and then go back out in the evening to buy what they need for dinner. This suggests that in between, they are faced with finding money to buy more. Because kerosene sellers are reluctant to sell small quantities, it is difficult for some people to have kerosene on a given day to cook a meal. He also wants to sell pure, refined kerosene. The students told us that some people sell contaminated kerosene that has been known to blow up and injure people, and burn down dwellings. One other interesting fact about Patrick's potential business: Because Kibera is a slum (of over a million people), it's existence is dependent on the government, who at any time could come in and tell people that they have to leave. Where they would go is another question. The government is planning to tear out the electricity in some sections of the slum (we haven't had the time to walk around much, but when I was in Soweto in South Africa last year, I learned that slum dwellers there tapped into the electrical supplies of "legitimate" homeowners, and then created their own electrical network from these taps, so I imagine it is a similar situation here.) If the government does turn off the electricity here, more people will need kerosene to cook.
As you can see, the lives of people here are not like our own.
Posted by Nancy Langton
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