BY VICTOR ADAR
While many enterprising individuals would find it peculiar starting businesses in areas where a big number lack the purchasing power, three young people are seeing a lucrative venture. Just ordinary young graduates, Boaz Onyango 28, Vivianne Atieno 24 and Samuel Muthui 29, have their sights set on big things currently trying to woo people living in Soweto Slum in Kahawa West into a more sustainable lifestyle.
What gets them ahead is love for what they do that has now birthed Umbrella of Homes for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (UHOVC), a charitable outfit that started in early 2017 as a day centre for education of the children in the slum.
Mr Onyango, who studied Education and Bachelor of Psychology at Egerton University, Ms Atieno, Bachelor of Environmental Science from Pwani University and Muthui who cut his teeth in social work get motivated by the fact that parents who are seemingly disadvantaged like single mothers and fathers or anyone in need of the services of a day care centre is now able to concentrate on what can bring income rather than staying at home broke looking after children.
“It’s an opportunity,” says Onyango. “We have many programs one of them being children’s home, and at the moment we have ten children in number. Then we also offer day care services at a flat rate of Sh30 per child paid on a daily basis, feeding program for children from the community, and an ECD (early childhood development) centre that is currently taking kids at a cost of Sh500 per month, which is quite affordable for parents here. We have 20 children who are paying the amount at the moment so that’s Sh10, 000. If you add the Sh30 being paid daily for day care kids, we are able to make about Sh30, 000 a month. We don’t have enough capacity for more children at the moment, and sometimes we turn down some,” he says, promising that they will expand in the near future to meet the high demand.
Apart from focusing on young children and parents – single mothers and fathers who can now get a chance to seek employment to earn a living, a rationale that was conceived by the organization’s executive and executed to benefit the community as a whole –, the UHOVC has expanded its educational services to also offer primary school drop outs education as well as sponsorship to those genuinely struggling to raise fees for joining secondary schools, campuses and colleges.
The centre is working out and is cheaper than the many baby care centres around. Some things tick wrong, but this one, to Mr Onyango, will pay off in the long run. Many children aren’t going to school. As young people, they came together, and tried to find out why that was the case. Instead of waiting for everything to become right, they decided to do their best and turn around the situation. In their own small way, they are marking a testimony of young people trying to create jobs for themselves while touching hearts of many in the society.
“The community donated a room for us to use. So we started with zero shillings, we never had money. But currently our main intention is to ensure that the programs are sustainable. We expect to expand and do as many programs as possible… in the future we intend to have a rehabilitation centre and a training institute. The ECD must also later on turn into a school as the children are expected to move from lower up to upper primary level,” says Onyango.
Having lived in the slum for quite sometime, these hardworking young Kenyans understand the shifts and implementing programs that will make an impact in their community just roll automatically. What they are doing is quite normal, but it’s only that they found a way of giving it a twist. Instead of just taking kids for day care, they extend olive branch to not only the orphans but also those who dropped out of school at an early age.
Actually, their passion is making kids in the slums go to school while also helping those who dropped out to consider going back to school or do something that can earn them a living. After doing some research on an income generating activity in Soweto slums, the trio found out that the need of the times is to do more than serve children who are in day-care balanced diet food.
Onyango quit his job a while back and is now helping others. He is using the experience he obtained from Mukuru Promotions Centre in 2016 where he worked as a grants officer to his advantage
The concept of running a childrens’ home and a day care centre at the same time has been around for decades. A centre can sustain itself that way especially during those times that money or donations are not flowing. Ms Atieno, an executive board member like Onyango, tells of the joys and sorrows
It is such creative thinking that could solve the issue of lack of jobs – they have employed five people, and pay an average salary of Sh7, 000 per person. When their pockets run dry and the Sh500 or Sh30 they charge per child can no longer hold, whom do they turn to?
Spending a rough estimate of Sh60, 000 a month, an amount that include food, rent and stationery, this lot works extra hard. As with anything else, Ms Atieno says, without setting up goals and planning for the future, things might not go well. They sit down together, work out a plan, and agree on what to do and what not.
“It has been very challenging. Sometimes we never get even half of it but because we have the best interest of children at heart we try our best to make things happen. We always manage even if it means chipping in as executives and get money from our pockets… But friends, family members and well wishers come in handy,” says Atieno.
Amidst the challenges, the smart youths are confident saying that the hardships come and go. They looked at the broader picture and embarked on doing what many would see as a little thing and so far things are clicking. They manage to ride out tough times by getting more sustainable ideas, and bringing in more people to support their work. They had their plan well before they jumped into the business of running a day care cum childrens’ home.
“We are thinking of starting a sanitation program where water will be sold to the community at an affordable price… There has been a shortage of clean water for the past one month and kids are the ones who are usually affected. We are also planning to set up a savings program. The money can be accumulated over time, and used to do other income generating projects. We could decide to buy a plot with such savings and develop so that we don’t rely so much on donations,” says Atieno.
