Margaret

Margaret’s Story

Margaret is the first in her family to attend high school and college. While most other girls in her village were forced to seek marriage at young ages to escape poverty and becoming a “burden” to their families, Margaret worked hard to focus intently on school.

“Being in college is a breakthrough for me because nobody in my family has come this far.”

At home, two of Margaret’s four sisters have been unable to ever go to school because of a condition called dysphagia that not only affects their ability to speak but also their mental health. The disorder required a very costly surgery beyond the family’s means. Their father could never support the family and abandoned them when the children were young.

Left vulnerable and in a state of poverty, one of Margaret’s sisters was raped on three different occasions. This caused immense stress on their mother as she was anxious to leave the girls at home when she needed to search for food or find work. Therefore, her inability to work presented many other challenges such as starvation, malnutrition, and ill health due to her lack of a healthy diet.

Margaret has earned herself tremendous respect in her village by overcoming many hardships and following her heart to become educated. Many young girls look up to her and are determined to pursue education just like her. Today, Margaret is studying Laboratory Science at Kisii University. Since her field of study is industrial, she hopes to work with local government agencies such as the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) and Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) to govern and uphold the quality of consumer goods and product certification.