My name is Stacy Atieno. Before I go to Bishop Okoth Ojolla Sec. School, I learned in a primary school called Ratta. I started learning in that school from class four. The life was not easy with me. I live with my great grandparents. My great grandfather died when I was in class five, from there I just stay with my great grandmother.

 I am a total orphan no father no mother. I didn’t see my father but my mother died when I was seven years old. From the time my mother died I just live with my great grandmother, and if somebody tells me about her mother I would just start crying because I missed my mother so much. Life continues, I went to class seven, life was difficult and I was not able to bear.

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When I go back home at lunch time, I would find my great grandmother seated in the verandah. Then she will tell me that there is nothing to eat and in the morning I went to school without taking anything. So I would just go back to school with only water in my stomach. The teacher would teach and I would struggle to master what he is teaching because you can’t learn when the stomach is empty. 

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In the evening when I went back home, I found my great grandmother has borrowed some flour from the neighbour and searched for some pigweed in the shamba (farm) so that we can eat something at night even if it is small. I was proud of her because she didn’t want to see us hungry and tired.

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In my great grandmother’s house we were five people who were still learning. Those four were including my uncle’s children. That uncle of mine was try for us that if he got something he would send and we would celebrate.

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When I was now in class eight I would study very hard because I was heading to K.C.P.E (Kenya Certificate of Primary Education -exam done at the end of primary school) soon. In term one I would wake up at dawn. I read and I used a lamp with little kerosene in it. It was lit as if it want to get off. When it reached 6.00a.m I prepare myself, take shower without soap get dressed and I went to school.

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When it reached term two the teacher decided that we should start eating lunch in school, because we were wasting a lot of time. We were to contribute two gorogoros (2kg tin) of maize and one of beans. My great grandmother was not able to get it for me. I work for somebody for three days and she gave me.

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When it reached the day of KCPE I did it the first day and it was not that hard, second and third day. When results came back I found that I had 300 marks and I was proud of it although it was not my target. By the time form ones were taken to school I was not able to go because there was nobody to take me in secondary school.

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I spent one week at home but I said no, I have to go to that school alone. I go there to Bishop Okoth Ojolla school. I found the Principal and explained to her my story and she agreed to admit me. There was a certain man who was transferring his child from that school and he deposited the fees of her daughter for term one in my name. 

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I learned in that school for the fees of term one we have taught and at the end of term one, I was given a fee structure and I don’t know where I will get the money from. That is why I am looking for a scholarship that can help me pay school fees. May Lord help me.

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- Stacy Atieno

  May 2023

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Stacy got an A- at the end of her first term in year one of Secondary School. She personally approached TWIGA with a request for a scholarship as she had been told not to go back to school if she did not have school fees. We paid a visit to her great grandmother’s home to confirm her story.  Stacy was not only an orphan, she had also lost her grand-parents. A decision was thereafter, made to support her for the rest of her secondary school education. 

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Stacy is currently in Archbishop Okoth Ojolla Girls High School, where majority of the photos of the TWIGA website were taken.