Our Impact

My name is Brenda Mudashi. I am from a remote village called Kimarani, Kapsotik sub-location which is in Vihiga county (about 400 km from Nairobi in the Western part of Kenya). I had never enjoyed life with my real parents because my mother left me with her mother who was supposed to take care of me. Since my grandmother had kids of her own, it was very difficult for me to stay there because she was not able to feed the all kids including me. I had the burden of fetching water 4 kilometers away and collecting firewood for cooking in a nearby forest which was very dangerous.

I lacked many basic needs, and even at the age of four I frequently skipped school to do house chores as my grandmother was very old. I had no school uniform, books, or pens. When I would ask my grandmother for them, she would tell me to go to school without them. Before I could go to school i was supposed to fetch water from the river, sweep the house and prepare the other children for school. If I didn't do it or took it long, my guardians were very harsh and would cane me and make me go the whole day with no food. I had to deal with different circumstances and my high school grades were not good.

I was employed by my neighbor to work as a laborer in his shamba [farm] and he refused to pay me. He said that I didn’t deserve to be paid because I should train as a village girl on how to take care of my shamba when I get married to a polygamous man, which is the norm where i come from. This mistreatment made me always fear for my future, so I had no choice but to quit, fearing he could have been planning something bad for me.

I longed for a different life where I could have some hope and a different way of life. Weeks passed as I looked for a person to help me out, which was tough because our village was so remote. In December 2019 a community leader in Nairobi visited our remote village during the Christmas festivities. After I told her my story, she promised to link me up with one of Africa AI (formerly known as Jijenge) officials. She connected me and I shared my story with him, and then I was very excited to receive a call from him in January 2020 telling me I had been shortlisted to join Africa AI.

Now I am at Africa AI working hard to succeed and change my future with this unique opportunity for me to excel in life. I had never used a computer before but now I'm learning more every day. I'm grateful to Africa AI and the people who came up with the idea to benefit those who are in need like me so that we can change our future through this program.

I am happy now that after months of training, I have computer expertise that I otherwise would not have gotten if I had stayed in the village. I would have probably lost hope. I am also very happy that am working online and earning a solid income, and getting paid promptly for my effort. I plan to visit upcountry later in the year and share the good news with the village mate especially the girls.

I was born in April 2000 in Kiambu Hospital. I am the third of six children. I was brought up in the small village of Marurui and joined school at Marurui Primary. I was able to study with the help of my parents who were doing casual jobs to feed the family. In Grade 4 my father left us and my mother was left alone to feed and care for the family alone. We'd often go to sleep without eating as my mother had no work to do at the time, and she struggled a lot with us.

I managed to finish school as I got help from the teachers who assisted me to study by providing some basic necessities like food and clothes. This was because even affording a uniform worth KES 200 ($1.72 USD) was a challenge. I finished Grade 8 in 2015 and managed to get a good score on my high school entrance exam.

Despite scoring well on my high school entrance exam, my mother did not have money to pay for my high school fees. I had to find a job and it proved very difficult to find one. I worked for weeks at a construction site as a laborer where I was paid Ksh 50 [$0.43 USD] per 12 hours. Their excuse for my low pay was that I was a child and children were not supposed to earn much money, despite carrying heavy bricks, mortar and sand everyday. I got injured and I went and pleaded with my primary school headteacher to help me again as this was too much for a small 15 year-old boy. He found a sponsor who was willing to pay for my school fees. My dream of becoming an electric engineer was back alive.

I started high school at Garden Estate Secondary School. However, life became even worse there as I had to walk a total of 12 kilometers each day to get to school and back, but God helped me cope and get through it. In 2019 I took my college entrance exam and got a C+, not as well as I had hoped for.

After high school I was desperate because I had nothing to do. I was just idling in the village. I requested to join Africa AI (formerly Jijenge Academy) since I wanted to gain computer skills. Despite having never used a computer before, they admitted me into their training program. Africa AI is currently helping me achieve what I wanted in life. For now I can truly say that my story has changed because of this company.

I have been able to learn a lot from the program and it has made me able to focus on my future. If I had not joined this company, I would probably be in a shocking environment struggling to mend my future. Thank you to the leadership team and everybody else who is working to ensure things are running smoothly and efficiently. I look forward to experience more opportunities from this company.

I look forward to future opportunities to better myself in my computer skills and even become an IT expert. I know this company is taking people to places and I'm very grateful for the opportunity.

My experience in Africa AI (formerly Jijenge) has been wonderful. It has come with a good reward of being able to earn money online. I work from the computer lab most evenings, and during the day I sleep and take care of my chickens that I bought with cash that I had saved through Africa AI. I hope to grow my income through this business as I earn more and save so that I can pay my university fees one day.

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My name is Sheryl Achieng Jairo I was born and brought up in Mathare Slums in Nairobi. I was orphaned at the young age of four and was immediately thrust into adult responsibility of feeding my brother, sister, and myself. We had no known next of kin, so I had to drop out of school to help my brother and sister to look for food. We were on the streets of Nairobi collecting scrap metal, used plastic cans, and animal bones to sell just to feed ourselves.

It was dangerous being a young girl in the streets and danger lurked in every corner, right from being bullied by the older street urchins.

I was also being used as bait and worse still they made me unsuspectingly deliver drugs to people in different areas of the town. Once I lost a package as I had joined children along the road to play on my way to make a delivery. I received a thorough beating and was starved for days so that I would disclose where I had taken it yet, but I had simply just lost it playing with children that I dearly missed. That is when it dawned on me that the packages were drugs.

We got thrown out in the cold by slum lords who owned the shanties where we were living because we were unable to pay the KES 500 ($4.29 USD) per month for rent. Most of what our mother had left for us was confiscated to make up for the months that we had not paid rent.

We stayed on the streets for three weeks before a well-wisher took us from the streets to an orphanage where we were able to study. In 2018 we were kicked out of the orphanage but luckily we were offered an opportunity to stay and study from another well-wisher.

In November 2019, I graduated high school and our well-wisher informed me she could no longer continue supporting me further.

I longed to join Africa AI (formerly Jijenge Academy) in which my brothers Brian and Yvonne were beneficiaries and have succeeded in life. On February 2020 I joined Africa AI after my brother gave me information about it. I believe that it will unlock opportunities for me to excel in life. I love dancing and singing, and I am currently teaching some girls from the community how to dance. This keeps them busy especially over the weekends. I am also introducing some of the children from the villages nearby to computers.

Graduating at Africa AI (formerly Jijenge) with advanced digital skills was the best thing to have ever happened to me. Earning money immediately after completing training was even better, and I'm currently earning a solid income doing computer vision data annotation. My plan after COVID is to continue teaching some computer skills to the girls who are my dance students. I am also looking forward to furthering my skills through online learning.