As a child, I was born and raised in the slum. I grew up with my grandmother and went through many challenges, especially in terms of education: I sometimes missed classes because of school fees, went to school on an empty stomach and lacked learning materials. As a child, this was very stressful and I was very stigmatised. That is the reason why I was fully involved from the beginning when we started ULT. It would give me no peace to see children going through the same challenges I went through when I was growing up and I want to be the change I want to see in the world.

At school I loved History and Languages so much that I made sure not to miss any of those lessons. Maths I didn’t hate, but the problem was that the teacher could only come in the afternoon and he knew it wasn’t a good time for the subject because we were all very tired already and you can imagine how boring maths is in the afternoon , but he was still aggressive if you weren’t attentive. That’s why I didn’t like Maths lessons in my school days.

I see ULT in five years’ time in a position where it has a safe space and a centre of innovation for the children of Kenya and the whole of Africa. Improved livelihoods through education have already been created by ULT, driving sustainable community development that continues to change for the better.

One day my friend and I were telling each other stories about our birthdays and for a long time I never told him about my birthday because in our country we have the tradition that on that day you are washed with water and I was so afraid of it. On the day of my birthday, I went to school normally and was happy that no one knew it was my birthday, but I didn’t know that they knew anyway, even though I hadn’t told them. Therefore, when I entered my class, I was wet within a second. It was still very early in the morning so I had to go home and change.