My name is Duncan Okoth. I am 30 years of age approaching thirty-one years this year. My place of birth was in the western Nyanza part of Kenya. I am the youngest in the family of five children whereby my elder brother was living in Nairobi by the time I was born back in the village. He had moved there to start his own life. So I grew up in a village with my other four siblings until I got two years of age where predicaments found its way into our home. The family started having financial constraints that left it living an impoverished life. Due to this untimely predicament. My parents separated and found their way out of the family to live their own lives. As a result, my siblings and I were left abandoned and orphaned with no parents to neither take care of us nor look after us. This situation forced my elder siblings to start playing parent roles to their younger siblings in order to raise us up. To the struggle for us to even obtain food to eat, but we had no choice; we have to live like that anyway. In due time. We got used to living that day. The life went on until it reached on 25th of December where we were celebrating Christmas. It happened so that my elder brother who was staying in Nairobi travelled to the village to join us in the Christmas celebrations. Upon arrival, he got the astonishment of his life that left him perplexed as to how the matter got out of hands. He could not believe that our parents abandoned us because of the financial constraints they underwent into raising us. His heart melted in sorrow and sympathy for us, especially me because I was the youngest and just two years old. After eating the little food he brought to us from Nairobi, he thought it wise to bring me with him back to Nairobi. The next morning we travel led back to Nairobi leaving my three siblings in the village and arrived in Kibera, The place where my elder brother was staying. I believe that my life will then change from the one I was in back in the village, and it did at first. Growing up in the slums wasn’t easy, but with my brother I believed everything will just be fine someday. My brother started hustling and doing small jobs in order to get money and take me to school where after a long struggle, he managed to get something and my education started right away. Though I got education, I lacked food and forced me to eat in my neighbor’s house each and every day. Two years down the lane and I was now four years of age. My brother got more lonely and decided to marry then He married a very equite woman named Hellen. Since then, my life changed from worse to worst and it was jumping from the frying pan into the fire. She saw me as a budget with the House. And make sure to use all the Ways and Means to ignite me from the house. She tried denying me food but it did prevail because I chose to stay. I could sleep hungry for days without complaining to my brother because Helen would beat me up and leave me a stone throw away to my grave. Thus chose to remain silent. Helen overworked me and made me do all the chores and at the end no food for me. She would beat me up severely with a wire at my back at petty mistakes and called me weird names to ease her rage and fury towards me. She even incited my brother that I was a thief who stole from her and that I never follow her instructions. Upon hearing these, my brother imparted with a lot of fury and grew resentful towards me. He too started beating me up with a wire in the name of correcting me because he thought that he was raising a thief. He also forbade me from playing outside with other children. Neighbors complained about the harsh treatments I underwent in my brother’s house and suggested to my brother that he should take me back to the village instead of getting mistreated and suffering and pain in my brother’s house. Consequently, it made my brother grow more furious and he took his usual wire and beat me up. That left me peeping at my naked grave. My whole back oozed blood profusely and forced me to skip classes and stayed at home so that I could heal the wounds on my back.It was a very odious sight and experience for me, but I had no one to turn to and just to tolerate and bear with it. I also recall THE DAY HELLEN sent me to the shop at night to buy some shopping, and I had to run as fast as my feeble legs will carry me, so that I could not delay anywhere and arrive late. We’re bringing back the shopping. Hellen got angry and outraged and inquired as to where the remaining change was. I tried explaining to her but she couldn’t give in to my explanations and sent me back to the shop to fetch the remaining change. She also explained to my brother calling me a thief and person who doesn’t follow instructions, my brother promised to beat me up if I failed to return the remaining change. On the other hand, the shopkeeper insisted that he had given me all the change that remained. With this, I was left astonished and perplexed. I couldn’t imagine the beating I was going to get on my return back to the house and hence, I decided not to go back and left for the streets. That night I slept on the streets due to fear. The next morning as I was strolling around I came to Halt at a place in Ngina Road called my Mabatini in Nairobi. There I met up with a man who was a preschool teacher together with his wife teaching small children. The man introduced himself to me as Daddy Moses and his wife Mom Sylvia, and they also told me that they normally teach small children whom they find roaming around on the streets and they’re less fortunate ones. They also wanted me to join their school. Calmly, I showed him my back and explained to him how it got injured and if he could help me heal the wounds so that I could continue with my studies in his school. How passionately he helped me heal the wounds until I got well enough to concentrate on my studies. They took me into their school and with this action, it laid a foundation in their lives and they wanted to start a children’s home to help more needy and vulnerable children who are just like me. They wanted to end child abuse and violence and also to provide for the less fortunate children. From there emerged a children’s home and they named the home ‘children’s garden homeschool’. Since then, my life got to Change at my new home and preferred it to my brother’s home because no one could beat me up thoroughly could get enough food and also go to study and be like any other child. I was 8 years of age by then. It happened so that when I was out of the home and just enjoying the cool breeze when I met up with my elder brother. It was a very awkward and terrible encounter for the both of us as tension aroused between us. To break the ice, my brother broke the silence and limited as to how he suffered searching for me everywhere with no gain and how he even gave up the search for he could not find me anywhere. His words sounded sarcastic since I could not believe him but I just told him that I found a home along Ngina Road and that he could visit me any time. We then parted ways as I headed back to children’s garden. My brother never turned up to visit me. That made me conclude that he never cares for me but I was just like a burden in his eyes. This made me swear to myself that I will force myself to forget all about my brother and all the torments and torture I underwent under his roof. I then decided to officially make daddy Moses and Mom Sylvia my real parents and I started living my life afresh in their home and school. I continued with my studies and managed to even complete my high school education. After finishing high school, I had to volunteer myself to teach my fellow children due to lack of enough teachers in the institution. I volunteered for 2 and 1/2 Years before a sponsor and a donor in Children’s Garden noticed my hard work and promised to take me to University to continue with my studies. He suggested a university in Italy. Where he lived and that he is willing to pay for my education there through course scholarship. I was filled with the ecstasies and hope because my dream of becoming a gastronomist wouldn’t die like that. And so he took me to Italy and got to study at Huneo University of Gastronomic Sciences and Food Nutrition gastronomy. After this turnover, I got inspired and motivated in my own life and resulted to me writing a book titled ‘Hold Your Dreams sitting Next to you’ with an aim to inspire other young people to hold on to their dreams no matter how tough the life may seem to them pointing evidences and reflecting to my own life. After finishing my course at the university, I got employed in a food company in Italy, a gastronomist, where I came up with recipes to prepare different types of food and to check on bacteria and virus in any type of food. What I would like to tell my fellow younger people is that they should never let go of their dreams and just keep holding on to it even if life may show them a thousand reasons to give up on it. And that in in every dark path there is light and hope at the end of the path.

Written by: Angel Mitchell