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NAME: Ian King’ori
Age: 17 years
Form: Form 3 (Grade 11) – January, 2019
School: Tigithi Secondary School– Boarder
PA-MOJA Scholarship started: Form 1 (Grade 9)
Sponsoring school: Walnut Grove Secondary, Langley, BC, Canada
December 2019 Update
http://https://youtu.be/dXAVFlK0ZhU
Ian lives with his brother and sister in a small village called Mwiruti in Laikipia East. He is the last born in a family of three. He has one brother and one sister. The first born is brother, Eric Maina, who has graduated from secondary school. The second born is a sister, Lucy Mumbi, who is currently in Form 3 (Grade 11) at Sweetwaters Secondary School in Laikipia.
Ian’s father, James Kariuki, passed away when Ian was six years old. Ian says he very few memories of him and doesn’t know what caused his death. After his death, Ian’s mother, Margaret Wothaya, began working as a housekeeper at a neighbour’s house in order to support the family. One day Margaret had a terrible headache and soon after, passed away from a stroke. Ian was fourteen years old and the three siblings founds themselves orphans.
Ian’s brother, Eric, as the eldest son, was now responsible for the family. He had high enough grades in high school to earn a government sponsored scholarship to university; however, in order to support his siblings he has had to start doing casual jobs like tilling other people’s land in his village in order to take care of his younger siblings. The little money he earns is used to buy food and other basic necessities.
Ian’s mother passed away shortly before Ian wrote his Kenya Certificate Primary Education (K.C.P.E) exam. This is a 3 day exam written by every Standard 8 (Grade 8) student in the country that determines whether they make it to high school. Despite the pain of his recent loss, he attained high enough grades to earn a position in a good high school. However, the family had no means to pay school fees for Ian.
The village committee that organized his mother’s burial raised enough for a school uniform and some supplies. However, the school fees were beyond the means of the community. The committee chairman approached a community representative who encouraged them to apply for a PA-MOJA scholarship. Ian was overjoyed to receive the news that his application was successful and his school fees would be covered throughout high school.
Ian is an ambitious young student and is looking forward to studying Mechanical Engineering. His favourite subjects are Mathematics and Physics while his favourite teachers are his Math teacher, Mr. Kimathi, and his Physics teacher, Mr. Nyakundi. He loves these teachers because they teach with passion, are always approachable and make the concepts understandable.
If given a chance to change his school, he would cement or plant grass on the school compound because it is always dusty or muddy during rainy seasons, renovate some leaky classes, and expand the school field because it is too small to play games.
Ian comes from the Kikuyu community and one thing he loves about them is their communal rite of passage ceremonies for boys. This is a time of feasting and bringing people together for celebrations. However, water is always a major challenge in his community and people have to walk miles to fetch water.
“What I love most about Kenya is the peaceful coexistence and the cultural diversity. However, I don’t like the way the majority of the Kenyans are not environmental conservationists and don’t bother to plant trees,” says the soft spoken Ian.
During school holidays, he assists his sister and brother with house chores, does revisions for his courses, and does casual labour on his neighbour’s farms to earn enough to buy personal effects and food for his siblings. When he has spare time, he likes listening to music (Bongo specifically) and playing soccer.
The most important person in Ian’s life is his late mother who took good care of the family when his father passed on. She enrolled them all in schools despite the constant lack of money and encouraged them to work hard on their courses. She also taught them moral values such as respect, hard work, and obedience.
Ian has a message for his PA-MOJA donors: “I would like to thank PA-MOJA and all the donors for this scholarship. For a fact, without this support, I couldn’t join high school. I would either be doing casual jobs on other people’s farms or tending to their livestock to earn a living. I promise to work my hardest to prove my worthiness for this scholarship. I thank you for this blessing. Thank you. Asante Sana.”
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August Update
Ian’s comment June 2018 [/one_third_last]
