Mwanasha big

Birthday

History

Mwanasha came with her two siblings Haji and Suleiman on 13 March 2000 to Nice View. After the death of their parents they lived with their sick and weak grandmother. They had not even a real roof above their heads and not each day they got something to eat. Since their grandmother was very weak, they had to take care of themselves. They did not go to school but had to work in the garden and had to carry heavy water buckets to their home. Mwanasha and her brother Suleiman go since 2001 to a private school, Haji since January 2002. Mwanasha is very diligently in school and has good grades. In her free time she likes to help in the housekeeping or feeds the babies. She shows a lot of talent in painting and singing. She has a lot of friends in "Nice View" and is a cheerful child.

Mwanasha and her two siblings have been handed over by the Court and Youth Welfare Office as orphans. Therefore, we were very surprised, as suddenly the quite young mother was standing in front of the gate. After the death of the father, the grandmother had insisted on keeping all the children - in Kenya the children are the "property" of the father or the father's family, and had chased the young mother away. The mother, re-married, has already other little children, and cannot take care of Mwanasha and her two siblings. Also the children are glad that they can stay with us. They know that living with their mother would mean that, instead of going to school, they would need to get water, collect firewood or work on the field. And the grandmother, who always threatened that she would again take the children away from Nice View, has in the meantime passed away. Mwanasha has become an ambitious and self-confident young girl, is very intelligent and could imagine managing the children's village later. Her passion is still the music and she is now the lead singer and dancer. In her free time she enjoys doing handicrafts or practicing for the upcoming performances as singer and dancer.

Since Mwanasha has always been the best pupil, we have decided to send her from mid 2007 on to a better and, unfortunately, also more expensive school in Diani (20 kilometers from Msambweni). Our expectation is that she can there improve her marks significantly, what will increase the chances on getting accepted by a national Secondary School (she is now in the 7th form). Students that get the possibility to attend a national Secondary School are the ones with the best prospects later.

Career

July 2008: Mwanasha is now in form 8, together with Fatuma since her change of schools. As with Fatuma, we are very optimistic that she will finish school with a good exam and will likely be taken in by a good Secondary School. She is still our most highly gifted singer and dancer, and it is always a pleasure to watch her sing and dance.

July 2009: Mwanasha successfully finished Primary School end of last year and since begin of this year she and Fatuma attend a Secondary School in Nyahururu west of Nairobi. We had decided to send them there, since education is better in the Nairobi area compared to along the coast. However, the school has strict rules, and we have almost no contact to the girls and they are quite homesick. Also for us it is difficult knowing them that far from home after almost 10 years in Nice View. Luckily they have each other, although they are in different classes and bedrooms. Furthermore, they come home for 4 weeks every 3 months. Mwanasha is keen on sports and spends a lot of time doing sports, especially in the weekend.

February 2010: Unfortunately also the school achievement of Mwanasha is not really satisfactory. However, contrary to Fatuma – which we have already withdrawn of the Secondary School - Mwanasha is highly motivated.  Therefore we hope that if she continues to work hard her performance will improve soon.

November 2010: Aus den Mädchen werden so langsam junge und selbständige Damen. Dies gilt auch für Mwanasha. Trotzdem freut sich immer sehr wenn sie in den Ferien nach Hause kommen kann. Ihre schulischen Leistungen sind leider noch immer eher mittelmäßig.