My name is Dalmas Oyugi, I would like to achieve something that seemed out of range for most young people growing in Korogocho slums, Nairobi Kenya, one of the biggest slums. I believe to lead by example;I am capable of proving to the younger generation how a single person can make a difference despite living under the most difficult circumstances.
My goals
My goal is to improve the lives of vulnerable children, youths, and women in poor slum communities. Everything I do is designed to meet the specific needs of an individual child. I am focused on assisting the most vulnerable in the slum area by providing resources to disadvantaged children and supporting their continuous education in the long term. I am proud of what I have achieved so far, but there is still a lot to be done.
I was born in Korogocho slum to a poor family, grew up under difficulties just like other children did, and still do. I got the opportunity to complete my high school education but with difficulties.
Shattered dreams
So my dream was completely shattered, I had no option but to turn at the nearby DUMPING SITE to scavenge for food and scrap metals and sell them to recyclers. Korogocho slums have the highest landfill of waste, which comes from different parts of the country. On the heaps of landfills, there is food leftovers from the airports, big estates, and from the capital city. From this waste, I fed myself from the remaining food leftovers for several years. To get out from here, it was like dreams come true. I was taken back to finish my high school education by a friend of my mother from her church. It was a great opportunity for me, and i never looked back having grabbed the school opportunity.
After my high school, i never got such an opportunity to go to college. Fortunately,i got the certificates from high school education. My certificates were the best opportunity ever. these were the greatest life changing decisions ever in my life . When i collected my certificates,i had to look for job opportunities, i was first employed as a casual worker in one of the companies in the city, and i worked there for more than four years. Later ,the company specialised in recruiting people with experience, and with me, I never had any experience with the work, and i was to resign from here.
New opportunities
Immediately with my documents, i look at possible ways for employment. And now that i was able to have friends with better ideas, someone recommended me and I got a job as a mechanic .From here, I started working as a mechanic, and life started to change because I had regular earnings.
From dumpsite to mechanic, I never looked back because HUNDREDS of children are still going to the dumping site and collecting „valuables“ they sell to a dealer. It is very bad for the health of the kids because of inhaling dirty air produced by the burning trash. By receiving an opportunity to work as a mechanic, It was an opportunity for me to have this job. The job changed my life. I got the life changing opportunity in the year 2015. I can not sufficiently describe what this opportunity meant to me . I a chance to get out of the dumpsite for a couple of years now. At last , it was also the start of a completely new life.
Giving back to my community
When I got my first salary, I never rushed to change my standard of living, but i had to give back to my community. With my salary, I used to provide food of my fellow people by going from door to door for two years. I later had a strong desire to use the power of education to change lives. It means to address social challenges that affect the Korogocho slums negatively. That strong wish led me to start, „REDEEMER LIVES KINDERGARTEN .
I still had to struggle to make my vision shining, I was to teach the lesson classes myself because i had not enough funds to employ other teachers.
One Sunday morning, i went to visit the dumpsite. From there, i took several photos of the site. When i came back from home that late evening,i used to take most of my time online to look for partners and supporters. From the search i got an organisation, I went through it thoroughly . Fortunately,i got the contact number from the bottom of the page. I saved the number from my contacts and rushed to WhatsApp to see if the number was online.
Luckily,it was a registered WhatsApp number. I sent several photos with requests for partnership and cooperation,from there and my message was responded to. When we stayed connected, the man (Stephan) requested a telephone call, though it was mot easy to convince due to scams online.
From the first day we did our meeting, the man was convinced and was later agreed to work together. It took a while of more than one year, and we agreed to brand our school name from Redeemer Lives‘ kindergartens to Soma Nuru meaning „Light of learning“.
Today, light of learning has 100 kids, a website created, and we’ve already partnered with NGO in Hamburg for our program activities.
DALMAS helps young kids to get a way out of poverty of their lives by providing quality, education and nutritional feeding programs within the Korogocho slum area.