Ms. Jill Muriel Juma
Biology and Chemistry Teacher
“I teach at St Al’s because I feel I can use my skills to make a bigger difference here than in a regular school. These students deserve the best teachers so that they can compete with others on a more level playing field.” That’s why Jill Juma continues to teach Biology and Chemistry at St. Aloysius Secondary School in the Kibera slum of Nairobi. She wants to “empower (her) students with the knowledge and life skills necessary to improve their lives.”
Jill was raised in Nairobi and was active in her Catholic parish youth group. Upon graduating college, she volunteered with the Catholic Lay Missionaries of Kenya. She taught for two years in rural northern Kenya at a girl’s high school while she also managed the Diocesan Youth Vocational Program. She returned to Nairobi with a deeper resolve to express her strong faith in service to less fortunate. Through her parish she happened to meet some of the very CLC members who were launching St Al’s School. She was immediately interested in lending her skills to the worthy project and she has been teaching here ever since. She appreciates that, “this is an overtly Christian school. No one is ashamed of or apologizes for the Catholic Christian faith that we teach and live even though we respect the faith traditions of all our students.”
She appreciates the personalized education and moral formation that St Al’s offers the students. Teachers visit the student’s homes and come to understand their unique situations and challenges. “This holistic approach allows teachers to engage the whole student in the classroom and makes us more effective teachers.”
Jill’s cheerful confidence is attractive to the many students who come to talk with her after class. Her Christ-centered life of generous service is obviously a bold witness to the students and other teachers. “I go beyond just being a science teacher. I want to teach life skills and empower young lives with hope.” Jill feels that she contributes by being a unique role model for her female students. She hopes to challenge educational stereotypes by showing that a woman can excel in and teach the sciences. She also models a lifestyle option that most students aren’t otherwise exposed to: a 31 year old, single, happy, Christian professional woman with career ambitions. She wants to show the young girls that dropping out of school and marrying young is not their only option.
Several times Jill mentions the need for a better school facility at St Aloysius. She points out that the classrooms are hot, dark and crowded, not all students can have text books, there are no proper science labs, or assembly areas and that security is an issue in the neighborhood. She hopes that the new facility being planned will become a reality soon so that these students can flourish in a “building that dignifies their education.”
Jill knows that the families of these young minds could not possibly pay the school fees at even public schools. St Al’s is their ONLY option for a continued education. “The students at St Al’s are both highly motivated and immensely grateful because they know that education is the only way out of their poverty.” She acknowledges that “providing a free education is lifting the burden of poverty for these families and enlightening their otherwise dark world with hope. We can eradicate poverty through education.”
Jill is grateful to all of the school’s benefactors and encourages their generosity saying, “your investment is not in vain. St Al’s can transform lives, help realize delicate dreams and produce tomorrows Christian leaders.”
~ 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/
