Gloria, Amisi, a 13-year-old girl from Mukuru Kwa Njenga slums in Nairobi, has been forced to drop out of school to work at a dumpsite to make end meets.
Amisi is a grade Seven student at Our Lady of Nazareth Primary School. Her dreams to continue with her studies stalled due to a lack of school fees amounting to Sh 22,000.
For three months, she has been collecting reusable items at a dump site in Mukuru slums and selling them to supplement her mother’s income as she struggles to educate her two siblings in Form One and Form Two.
“I met a woman whom I asked if I could work at the dump site, and she allowed me. I collect plastics and scrap metals and give them to her. I earn around Sh 110, which I give to my mother at home,” she told Citizen.
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Her mother’s efforts to convince school heads to allow Amisi back to school bore no fruit despite the government’s directive to allow students to study, even without fees in school.
“I have gone there five times, the head teacher turns my request down and tells me to find money…We went to the chief to help, but when we got to the school again, he refused,” Amisi’s mother, Rebecca Andeso said.
Amisi, whose dream is to become a doctor, admitted she does not love the work believing that someday she would become a testament of hope to other kids experiencing similar hardships.
“I don’t like to do that job, but I want to go to school to become a doctor and improve my mother’s life,” she said.
