Your sponsorship of $125 per month will give this precious child the necessities to survive and the tools to thrive. Your monthly pledge will help pay for food, clothing, schooling, living expenses, and medical treatment, giving them the opportunity to live a life they only dared to dream.
Click on the sponsor button above to start this incredible journey.
Irene is strong and confident. She is hard-working and knows that the education she's receiving is invaluable. It's an opportunity that she hasn't always had and she refuses to take it for granted. She comes from a family of nine children. Her father left her mother and the kids when Irene was only six years old. Her mother spiraled into a depression and turned to alcohol, forgetting her responsibility of caring for the children. Their house and farm were repossessed, and the kids were going hungry. From there, they bounced around a lot, living with different family members for short periods of time until they became too big of burdens and were sent on to the next. They finally landed in Kitale, and were staying with their maternal grandmother in the Kipsongo slum. Their grandmother showed the girls how to beg for food and pick through trashcans in the market and at hotels so that they could have enough to eat. Their mother was working to collect firewood and sell it, but any money that she would make went towards alcohol. They lived in a house made of nylon sheets and slept on blankets they made from the trash they would pick. None of the kids were going to school, but their grandmother made sure that they went to church, and at church they were able to starting learning bit by bit. Things started to look up for them when Hellen and Richard started the feeding center in the slums. It was the first time they were able to eat until their emaciated bellies were full. When the primary school opened, Irene and her sister Roselidah were able to start attending school. They would go to school during the day, and then at night they were back on the streets, begging. Their (now) sponsor sister brought the girls and their younger sister, Neevah, to Hellen & Richards attention while visiting Kenya. All three were immediately brought into the orphanage. It's hard for Irene to look back at all the difficulties her and her siblings have faced, but she is determined to use those adversities to not only better her life, but to be apart of a generation of change in Kenya and around the world.
