Africa

Nellah’s family – Kibingoti LIFT community, Sept 2018

Candace BarlowKibingoti, Lift

Nellah, who receives funding from our LIFT program in order to attend school, tragically lost her mother last year to lupus. After her mother’s death, Nellah’s father was unable to care any longer for his daughter and her two brothers. Their aunt fortunately took them in, and they now live with her family in rural Kibingoti. This large extended family of 7 – 3 adults and 4 children – lives in a 3-room home with mud walls and cement floors, in the countryside. They grow produce which helps to feed the family as well as to generate income, when the excess can be sold at local markets. When rains make the local dirt roads muddy, however, the produce unfortunately spoils before it can be brought to market. The gift of LIFT funds for Nellah’s school fees allows the family to send Nellah’s younger brothers to school, as well. They are very thankful for the support. Like any child, Nellah has dreams for her future. She loves studying math and English and wants to become a nurse when she is grown up. Her goal after becoming a nurse is to treat people in her own village. She also helps at home […]

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Kevin’s family – Umoja LIFT community, Sept 2018

Candace BarlowLift, Umoja

15-year-old Kevin lives with his extended family in Umoja, an urban area of Nairobi. Funds from our LIFT program help to support Kevin and his family by paying his school fees at Kariobangi South school. Kevin’s family came to live in Nairobi when his maternal grandmother migrated with his mother. Kevin and his sister, Pauline, both were born in Nairobi. After their mother sadly passed away 3 years ago from tuberculosis, Kevin and Pauline stayed on with their grandmother in the family home in urban Umoja. They now share the 3-room home with their grandmother, uncle, and cousin. They have a kitchen, sitting room, and 1 bedroom for the 5 family members. Their grandmother also is in ill health, due to diabetes and high blood pressure. The family is very grateful for support from LIFT, since they now can divert funds formerly used for school fees to cover rent and buy food for the family and medicine for Kevin’s ailing grandmother. Like most children in Kenya, Kevin helps with household chores at home such as washing dishes, house-cleaning, and fetching water for drinking and cooking. His favorite subjects at school are math and science. He wants to pursue these interests and […]

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Emmanuel’s family – Umoja LIFT community, July 2018

Candace BarlowLift, Umoja

Could you make the choice to live separately from your spouse and to parent your 3 children in a large city, all on your own, in order to provide them a better life? That’s the choice that Emmanuel’s (pictured here, with his father) parents made. Emmanuel’s father, Philip, lives with 3 of his 6 children in Nairobi, where he works for the city’s transportation department, while Emmanuel’s mother stays in a rural village in western Kenya. The 4-person family lives in a one-room rented home in Umoja, an urban neighborhood in Nairobi. Although they came to Nairobi to seek opportunities, costs – especially rent – also are high, and they have experienced great hardship. The family sometimes goes days without food. In the village, where Emmanuel’s mother, Sarah, resides, the family owns an acre of land. The land is used to produce food for the extended family. Sarah also works in the sugarcane fields. Her eldest daughter is married and no longer lives at home. Emmanuel is able to attend school for the first time, now that he receives support from our LIFT program to pay his school fees. He is attending first grade.  He says that he has good […]

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Brian’s family – Kwa Njenga LIFT community, July 2018

Candace BarlowKwa Njenga, Lift

Have you ever considered living apart from your family in order to support them? That’s the choice Brian’s father, Geoffrey, made in order to try to build a better life for his family. He and Brian (pictured above) – who is supported by our LIFT program – live in Nairobi, while Brian’s mother and 4 siblings remain in a rural village. Brian and his father, Geoffrey, live together in a 1-room home in Kwa Njenga, one of Nairobi’s sprawling urban slums. Geoffrey works as a security guard at a hotel while Brian attends school. Geoffrey feels that life in the slum would be too hard for the entire family. In the village, Brian’s enterprising mother, Rose, manages affairs at home and sells porridge at a nearby shopping center, when she can. The family also owns a 1/2-acre of land in the village, but it is shared among the extended family. The children who have remained at home with Rose attend school in the village. Rose and Geoffrey have seen their lives improve substantially since receiving LIFT funding to support Geoffrey, since they now can divert funds to pay school fees and purchase clothing for their other children. They hope for […]

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Vivian’s family – Kibingoti LIFT community, July 2018

Candace BarlowKibingoti, Lift

Imagine that you are faced with supporting your 4 children with what you can grow on a ½ acre of land or earn from short-term labor. And the land is shared with your extended family. This is the challenge that Vivian’s (pictured above) parents face each day in rural Kibingoti, one of the 3 focus communities for our LIFT program. LIFT funds pay Vivian’s school fees at Kahuhoini Primary school. She attends the 6th grade. Before receiving this funding, Vivian often was sent home from school due to lack of payment. She is very grateful that “she now can study” like her classmates from more economically fortunate families. 3 of the family’s 7 children live together with their parents in a 2-room home with dirt floors. Their father recently became ill and cannot farm or seek work, so their mother has started looking for casual (short-term) labor in order to buy food for the family. They face additional challenges from dirt roads that become impassable in the rainy season, a shortage of health care providers and clinics, and a lack of clean water for drinking and use at home. Demand for clean water and better health care both are very […]

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