Not far off of the main road — the same main road off of which Neema is located — sits the home of one of Neema’s first year students, Sarah Pem. Standing on the red dirt of the main road, it’s hard to even see her home through all the brush. But a two foot wide path — through yam plants, bushes, and trees — leads to a small opening where a two room mud hut sits with a small mud shed adjacent to the right.

At Neema, we often use the words “temporary housing” when describing a student’s living conditions. And what we mean by that is a house much like Sarah’s. The walls are made of hardened mud, with certain spots dry and cracked just like the mud on the ground after a few rainless days. The roof is slightly slanted from a center peak and made of rusted tin sheets. And the one door and few windows are made of wood. The inside is lit by natural light with dirt floors, and contains a couple of chairs and a couch occupying the main room.

About 20 feet from the front of the house is a little trickle of a stream that leads to a three foot by three foot dug out hole — maybe six to eight inches deep — where the water from the stream collects. This water is presumably what Sarah’s family uses for cooking, washing, laundry, etc. And around the edges of their homestead are yam plants that the family farms. Our Neema staff explained that this is a swampy area, which is why the yams are able to grow — a good thing. But it also means that the area floods when it rains. And with Kitale being near the equator, the rainy season occupies more than half of the year.

Sarah’s mother passed away in 2020, so it’s just her dad and three of her brothers who stay at the house. When on break, Sarah actually lives with a neighbor because the house is so small, and she’s the only girl. She does have an older sister, but that sister is married and lives elsewhere.

Sarah’s father, John, is a cobbler who makes shoes. But the place where he was working was demolished when the railway line was built (the railway line that currently lies dormant and unused). His business has essentially died out since then, and he no longer has any customers. But he wants to work and wants to continue to make and repair shoes.

Although Sarah’s three brothers who still live at home are all attending school, the extreme poverty from which Sarah comes means there was no money for the necessary school supplies and uniform needed for her to continue onto high school, and she was forced to drop out after eighth grade. Fortunately, she and her father heard about Neema from a neighbor, and she started this year.

When asked what changes John sees in his daughter even after the short time she’s been at Neema, he said that from the outside, there’s a change in her physical appearance — she’s wearing a uniform (a big deal in Kenya since all schools require uniforms), and she’s neat. But he also says that now that she’s back in school, she has hope. Because he didn’t have the money to pay for school fees, Sarah was supposed to just stay home. But after they heard about Neema and she started, it has transformed her in terms of education and good health, and he’s grateful for that. His desire is for Sarah to have hope and a bright future.

Sarah says she is grateful to God for bringing her to Neema because she knows after she is done with school she will have to give a helping hand to the father who does everything single handedly.

Sarah is currently in Neema’s Tailoring I Class. Not only is she learning the skills necessary to be a tailor, she’s also receiving the much needed counseling Neema offers to cope with the grief of losing her mother. And we at Neema are optimistic too, along with Sarah’s father, that her future will be bright and full of hope.

Hear Sarah Share about her family

Overcoming Loss and Poverty to Support Her Father: Sarah's Story