Keith K.
St. Al’s Graduation Class of 2010
Keith was named after her grandfather, who is of royal lineage. She is proud that her birth name, Shiundu, means “a great leader” in her native Luhya language.
After primary school Keith was devastated to not be able to continue her education. Her family simply could not afford the school fees so Keith joined her mother at work for a year. Until one day, she heard a voice that changed her life.
Keith explains that the walls of the slum shanties are so thin that she “literally overheard a neighbor’s conversation through the wall”. Her ears perked up when the neighbor mentioned a new “free” secondary school in Kibera. Keith quickly and confidently presented herself to the school principal and explained her situation and ambitions. Her mother’s support soon followed and the family now supports Keith in this “blessing” of a school. “If not for St Aloysius School I would be working day labor, housecleaning and doing laundry and I would not have this bright future ahead of me. This is why this school is such a blessing from God. ”
Keith hopes to become either “a journalist with CNN or a judge in the High Courts of Kenya.” She says that her, “greatest interest is to help others just as I have been helped.” She is concerned for the other young girls of Kibera who cannot go to school or who drop out and become pregnant. She is grateful that St Al’s also teaches the variety of students “how to live together as a community”. She claims that when benefactors help St Al’s students they are indirectly “helping all of Kenya because of the benefit this country will receive from the graduates.”
Keith sits in the front of crowded classroom and is curious and confident enough to ask lots of questions. Her bright eyes and ready smile broadcast her interest and alertness. Her favorite subjects are English, Chemistry, History and Kiswahili. Her enthusiasm for school is manifest in her boasting that “most schools don’t offer the opportunity to have Saturday classes like at St Al’s.” She adds that, “The teachers at St Al’s care for both our quality education and our personal well being. We are able to talk with our teachers about our problems at home.” Science teacher, Ms Jill Juma says that Keith “is a great public speaker. She’s a natural leader. She just has it!”
Keith wakes up at 5 am to study before breakfast. In the evenings she is occupied with cooking and cleaning and caring for her younger siblings. She sometimes goes to the local church to study in the evenings because she cannot study with the little ones around her at their small home. On weekends she joins her mother as a day laborer trying to provide for the seven of them. Unfortunately Keith frequently suffers painful migraine headaches so she struggles to keep focused on her studies.
Keith has this to say about the meaning of the school slogan: To Learn, Love and Serve: “The ‘serve’ part crowns it all. We learn the tools and skills to be able to love others in order to serve them. To me, it is impossible to serve without love.”
To the benefactors she says, “Thank you for finding me and giving me this future. May God continue showering you with His blessings.”
~ by Fr. Jim Collins, SJ
To learn more about and support St. Al’s, please visit the website http://www.sagnairobi.org/ or call 1-800-922-5327 at the Chicago Province of the Society of Jesus - http://www.jesuits-chi.org/
