26-year-old Valentine Chepkirui from Nairobi built her parents a beautiful home in Kericho with the financial help of her friends. The construction ended in December 2021.
She held a housewarming party for the house in Easter 2022, months after completing the house construction due to a lack of funds to buy furniture.
However, her friends came through for her.
She created a WhatsApp Group where she included some of her friends to raise money.
“I had a few who knew I was building a house for my parents, but I had no money for furniture. So I created a WhatsApp group, and my friends raised Sh. 250,000,” she stated.
With these finances, she stacked her parent’s newly built home with furniture and was able to officially open the house during Easter in 2022.
“Because of their help, we officially opened the house during Easter,” she recalled.
Valentine Chepkirui had been planning to build her parents a house in 2019. It was at this same time that she wanted to fulfill her personal ambition of becoming a car owner.
Selflessly, Valentine ditched the latter to move her parents from their ramshackle house.
“When I went back home, I could not imagine parking it next to my parents’ dilapidated house. So that is when I decided to build a house for them,” she recalls.
Broke in her bank account, Chepkirui resolved to save diligently every month for the project. She approached her mother and sister who agreed to support her.
Construction started. Chepkirui and her sister had agreed to share the building items to be bought equally. With Sh. 200,000 from their mom’s pension plan, construction kicked off.
A year later, due to the Covid pandemic, Valentine Chepkirui’s sister lost her job.
“By then, my mother was doing a casual job, while my dad was not working. But I told them that we would not stop building the house.”
The construction task fell solely on Chepkirui. She also had to support her other 3 sisters. Despite the challenges, she persevered.
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3 years later, the house was almost ready. She used the funds allotted by friends to buy her parents a fridge, a microwave and stylish furniture among other home furnishings.
At the house launch on Easter 2022, Chepkirui’s mother could not hold back her tears of joy.
“We come from a humble background, and my mum did not expect such a thing would happen in her lifetime. I feel so blessed,” she said.
Her advice to those who are looking to build houses is, never pay attention to doubters.
“It is not going to be easy. When construction began, some people said we would not finish the project,” she said.
“Others wondered where a young girl like me found the money and falsely claimed I was dating a sponsor,” Chepkirui added.
