Pauline’s grandmother brought her to Achungo in 2015 into 4th grade. “I had been going to Rodi Primary school but there the learning was not good and teachers often didn’t come to class. We were not being cared for like at Achungo. Here there is good learning, the teachers teach good, and there is a good diet. The happiest day for me was when I came to Achungo. Now I can achieve my goals. “
Pauline wants to become a journalist, “because it would be a good job and good income for my family and would help me improve my English and Swahili.” She thinks about moving to the city, maybe even to London.
Her favorite subjects are English, Swahili and Social Studies. She says she loves to learn, to read storybooks and sometimes “rest her mind and just play with her friends.” She enjoys running in races, volleyball and soccer. At home she helps her grandmother with chores, working the subsistence garden and sometimes helping selling maize or fruit to earn some money to buy what they need.
Pauline’s home is a few miles from Achungo, (“about 30 minutes’ walk”) where she lives with her grandmother, older sister, Janet (18) and younger brother, Jeremy, (6). Her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Okello, died when she was very young. Her father from a stroke and her mother in a traffic accident as she traveled from Kisumu (“just some months after my younger brother’s death.”)
“I would like to tell you to thank God that you have your parents to take good care of you. Here in Kenya we struggle to earn a living. I thank Achungo Educational Centre for accepting me so that I could learn from class 4 up to class 8 and now I am going to finish and am sad to leave.”