“PATHWAYS is a place to belong. The distance we have come since the conception of PATHWAYS, whom we have reached out to, and support from donors and scholars leaves us with a smile on our face as we work towards a better Kenya, if not the best.
“I strongly believe that PATHWAYS is set to make a turn around not only in Kenya but also in other developing countries. We have the potential and truly ‘PATHWAYS Yes we can’.”
Our second annual PATHWAYS conference was a great success. Portia Allen, our volunteer from Emory University, traveled to Kenya to site visit the scholars’ projects, see and hear their progress, and meet with the mentors. She was also able to be on hand to attend the annual conference. Dr. Mbaabu Mathiu, our vice president in Kenya hosted the conference and Betty Auma, our student coordinator, made sure everything ran smoothly.
Entrepreneur, businessman, Rotarian, philanthropist and PATHWAYS mentor Eric Kimani gave the keynote address.
The presentations given by the scholars showed the progress they have made in the past year both academically and with their community projects designed to help Kenya. Isaac Ngere presented on his sustainable orphanage project including his poultry and vegetable projects and HIV awareness programs for the youth. He even completed construction of a building, with help from his community, to provide a learning environment/nursery for the orphans in his village.
Monicah Wairimu gave a presentation on computer security, something she had learned about in her studies at Kenya Methodist University. She continues to work toward developing a self sustaining safe water program in her community to provide rain catchment tanks to her neediest community members in Elementaita who for years have had to live with fluoride contaminated water.
Levis Maina presented on the projects his new volunteer organization “Hands on Kenya” has taken on in the last year including cleaning Kenyatta Hospital wards and helping to repair the buildings and grounds at the SOS Children’s Village (a home for orphaned children).
Lily Chepkorir reported on the progress she has made in developing a bee keeping project as well as a tree nursery to improve the economy in her village of Bomet.
Finally, John Mugo discussed his plans for an HIV/AIDS education program among youth.
We remembered Isaac Ngere’s former mentor, Father D’Agostino, who passed away last year. We are grateful that Father could share his passion for helping others with Isaac even for a short time. All of the PATHWAYS mentors are making a real difference in the lives of our scholars and by extension, the lives of many others through the scholars’ projects: Sister Mary Owens (Isaac Ngere), Eric Kimani (Monicah Wairimu), Mike Eldon (Levis Maina), Lydia Koros (Lily Chepkorir) and Dr. Kimani Njogu (John Mugo).
Hussein is the last-born in a family of five and the only child who has had an opportunity to attend high school. Like many girls in Kenya, his elder sister was married when she finished her primary school, and unfortunately, her husband was HIV-positive. He passed-away last year.
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I want to express my support for PATHWAYS. Our district, nation and world need more programs like it." -- John Lewis, Civil Rights Leader and U.S. Congressman
