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Name: Susan Korere
Age: 16
Form 4 (Grade 12) – January, 2018
School: St. Jude Boarding School
PA-MOJA Scholarship started: Form 1 (Grade 9)
Tribe: Samburu
Sponsoring School: Madison East High School, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
Susan lives in the village of Ereri with her mother, Grace and father, Kareny who are both traditional Samburu pastoralists. Neither of her parents have ever attended school. Kareny has 3 wives and a total of 24 children. His first wife has 7 children who are all married and have their own families; none of them went to school. The third wife also has 7 children; the first child didn’t go to school, but the other 6 are all in primary school.
Susan’s mother, Grace, is the second wife. She has 10 children. The first three children didn’t go to school. Susan is the fourth born child and the first of her siblings to attend school. Together, the three families share 100 cows, 150 sheep and 50 goats.
The family moved to Ereri from Rumuruti in 2007; there were dangerous land conflicts between the Samburu and Pokot tribes so the family fled to a safer area.
Susan’s favorite subjects are History and Chemistry. Her favorite teacher is Mr. Wachira, who teaches math, but also gives his students powerful life advice. Her biggest challenge is her home life. During school breaks (three 1-month breaks each year), she goes home to a tiny crowded shack with no electricity or running water. After every school break, schools open with exams that students are expected to study for while they are at home. Susan’s parents have never been to school so they don’t understand the importance of this study time. Her parents expect her to work when she’s at home so she can’t find the time or a place to prepare for her exams. As a result, her marks aren’t as high as she’d like them to be.
In the future, Susan would like to be a nurse. She enjoys helping people and belongs to a volunteer club in her school that assists old and disabled people.
Although she loves many aspects of her Samburu culture, she would like to see some changes. She doesn’t believe girls should marry at such a young age (as young as 12) to much older men. She would like to see Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) end. She, herself, faces this inhumane procedure before she marries. If she doesn’t, she will be cursed by her parents and no longer accepted by her community.
Thankfully, because she has gone to school, she’ll be able to choose her own husband. Her marriage and FGM will be deferred until she finishes university. She hopes to meet another educated Samburu man because she doesn’t want a husband who wants multiple wives. Susan wants only two or three children so that she can afford to put them all through school.
Susan has a message for her PA-MOJA donors: “I’m so proud that I’m 16, in school and not married. I’ve realized that the most important thing is to become educated and work hard in school. I want to send my deepest appreciation to all the PA-MOJA donors for helping me become the first person in my family to complete high school. I hope to finish university so that I can be in a position to help another young girl like me achieve her dreams. Asante Sana. Thank you.”
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[one_third_last]August 2018 Update,Susan’s comment June 2018 [/one_third_last]
