11-year-old June lives with her Mom and Dad and 2 younger brothers in Nairobi’s Kwa Njenga slum. She is pictured above (L-R) with her younger brothers, mother, and our Head Social Worker in Kenya, Eliud Kipkorir. June’s mother and father first met at church in Nairobi.
Kwa Njenga is the city’s second-largest slum. No updates (roads, utilities, etc.) have been made since it sprang up. June is able to attend the 4th grade at Gifted Prince school due to support from Light Up Hope’s LIFT program, which pays her school fees.
June is a talented student, even though she struggles with epilepsy. The wages earned by her father – who is diabetic – as a security guard mostly pay for medicine for himself and his daughter, as well as for food and rent for the family. June’s mother helps out with the family’s needs by seeking day labor washing clothes for neighbors in a nearby affluent area.
The gift of school fees has allowed the family to send the younger two children to school, as well, although they still struggle with finding clean water, paying their rent (which has increased), and dealing with unsanitary and difficult conditions in the slums.
June helps her Mom at home and hopes to be a nurse one day! Her favorite subjects, appropriately, are math and science. Her school, Gifted Prince, is a one-story building made of iron sheeting, located in the center of the slum. She must walk to school on roads made very muddy by recent heavy rains. The rains also contribute to trash and raw sewage running through the makeshift roadways, making travel on foot even more treacherous. June’s wish is that the people living in the slums might have a good hospital one day.
The family prays that Light Up Hope will be able to expand its efforts to reach other families like them. They foresee a brighter future for their children than before the support from LIFT came into their lives.
Poverty, not the death of a parent, is the leading cause of orphanhood in Kenya. LIFT is our family unification program that seeks to keep families together – and prevent children from being relinquished to orphanages – by assisting with food, education, and health care. Learn more at: https://lightuphope.org/about/lift-family-unification/