Teacher Helps Kids in Hard Places Believe in Themselves

“Hey mum, do you remember what the Bible says? ‘Fear not, for the Lord is with you’,” is a constant reminder that Veronica receives from her teenage daughter.

The reminder, Veronica says, comes when she, as the mom, worries about something.

Veronica works as a primary school teacher in Kajiado, Kenya. She was married for two years before her husband died, leaving her to raise her daughter, now 18, by herself.

Veronica first learned about the Hope Center in her community in 2015 when Bishop Kotoke of KAG Kajiado announced that the church, in partnership with OneChild, would be setting up a center and that they were looking for volunteers to serve the kids.

“I love working with children,” Veronica says. “This is a calling that drove me to become a teacher, so I was delighted to volunteer at the center.”

The Joy in Serving Kids

When Veronica volunteered to teach the kids, she also became a member of the leadership at the center and served as a secretary as well. Over the years, she has served in different capacities there. She says being a servant of kids brings her joy.

“I like serving children because it brings a huge smile to my face. Children are unique. Every day they come with new stories that encourage me,” Veronica says.

“I feel good when I empower them and change their lives. I am happy when a child as young as 7 years can memorize several Bible verses. So, if I see that happening, it makes me happy.”

Although Veronica has had a variety of experiences working with kids who live in poverty, one particular girl’s story remains in her heart. The little girl’s name was Yvonne.

“When she got registered into the program, she was a happy bubbly girl,” Veronica recalls. “Then after some time, I realized she had started withdrawing and isolating herself from others. She never joined in to play, and that became a concern for me.

“I reached out, made her my friend, and showed her motherly love. Then she opened up about what the challenge was. The problem was that her mom, who is the only parent they have, was struggling financially, and basic needs were hard to come by.

“This affected the girl’s self-esteem. While others at the center came in with neat clothes, having showered, and with shiny faces, her mom could not afford any of that, so her uniform was always dirty because soap was not available.”

After finding out about the challenges Yvonne was dealing with, Veronica and other Child Champions at the Hope Center were able to help the family get back on their feet — and the girl was happy again.

The Hard Place Served by the Hope Center  

Just like the challenge Yvonne’s family was facing, Veronica says, most kids at the Hope Center live in similar circumstances.

The kids come from Majengo, a densely populated slum community in Nairobi. Most live in tin houses with no electricity or running water and they must share a common toilet and bathroom area.

The families use candles to light up their houses and have cooking stations outside where they cook with firewood. They fetch water from the church because the cost is subsidized and affordable.

Most parents there who work have casual jobs like cleaning houses and washing clothes for people or working as housemaids. Some have small grocery kiosks where they earn an income.

Parents earn the equivalent of about $4 a day from cleaning homes or washing clothes, Veronica says. However, even those jobs are hard to come by, so many parents are jobless.

With such little income, most families struggle to afford to send kids to school, buy food, and pay rent.

Veronica says that on Hope Center program days, the first place some kids visit is the kitchen because most haven’t had a meal the day before. The parents prefer to save the little food they have for another day because they are hopeful the kids will get enough food the following day at the center, she says.

Also, the tough financial situation in the homes at times leads to physical and emotional abuse of kids at the hands of their parents, Veronica says.

To help address this issue, the center organizes home visits, and Child Champions carry food baskets to the families. They also offer guidance and counseling when needed, not just to the kids but to the parents as well.

“It is impossible to care for the child at the center, then let them go back to an unstable environment at home,” Veronica says. “This is why we reach out to parents as well, to help ensure that the kids thrive at the center and home.”

A Tough Childhood

Her motivation to serve kids is drawn from her own childhood experience, which she says was a tough one.

Veronica grew up in a polygamous family; her dad had two wives and together they had 18 children. She is the youngest of her siblings.

As a young girl, Veronica at first dreamed of becoming a doctor, but later realized that she wanted to be a teacher.

In school, her favorite subjects were English and Kiswahili, and she eventually became a teacher of both subjects.

Her father, she says, worked for the army but had long retired before Veronica was born. Unlike her older siblings who were born when the family was financially stable, she had a different experience.

Her parents struggled to make ends meet because they depended on her dad’s monthly pension, which was not enough.

Veronica struggled to stay in school because she lacked school fees, and when the time came for her to attend high school, she had to stay at home for a year while her parents looked for a way to pay the fees.

Apart from trying to stay in school, Veronica often didn’t have enough to eat, and her parents couldn’t meet their basic needs.

“I normally tell my girls at school that it came a time when my mom couldn’t afford sanitary pads, so I used blanket pieces, towels, and old clothes that my mom cut neatly and cleaned for me,” she says.

For a long time, she had one pair of shoes and wore the same outfit every day.

“I used to have a very good black skirt and a red blazer. Everywhere I went, that was the only thing I had on, and some people knew me as the girl with the black skirt and red blazer,” Veronica says.

“Right now, I look back and thank God for everything. From having no choice, today I am spoilt for choice.”

Today, Veronica is grateful for her childhood experience because it not only makes her resilient, but it also allows her to deeply understand and empathize with the kids at the Hope Center.

“If a child says they don’t have food, clothes, school fees, or any basic need, I understand very well because I know that someone can lack anything,” she says.

Through sharing her story with them, she hopes they feel encouraged to be resilient and hold on to hope.

“It is one thing to tell a child to be strong and courageous; and it is another thing to share your own experience,” Veronica says.

“Most of the time, they easily relate with me because they know I was like them, but emerged victorious, so they are hopeful for a better future.”

She also shares the same lessons that she learned from her childhood with her daughter.

Veronica’s hope for kids in hard places is that they can hold on to unshakeable hope and learn the lessons from their experiences now so that they can encourage another child in the future. It’s her way of paying it forward, she says.

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