stella's story

Stella Wangari is seventeen years old. She attends Nembu Girls High School and is in Form II (sophomore year). Stella is lucky to be able to attend secondary school, because only 24% of children in Kenya do. Stella lives in Kibera, which is Kenya’s largest slum, in Nairobi. Over a million people live in Kibera, and they struggle every day with extraordinary poverty and high crime. In all of Kibera there is not one public secondary school, so she must travel to Nembu on the other side of Nairobi. She lives there when school is in session. She must bring her own mattress, clothing, and a bucket for washing when school begins.

Her father, Wachira, is a driver and her mother, Muthoni is a housewife. Even though her father works very hard, his earnings barely cover the costs of food and housing. He only earns $50 a month. Stella receives a scholarship from Growth Through Learning, an American non-profit, and without it she would not be able to go to school. Stella’s best subjects are biology, chemistry, English and math, and she dreams of being a surgeon. She has seen many people with health problems die in their homes because they lack funds to go to the hospital. She says she will charge people less for their surgery so that they do not lose all their money because of health problems.

When Stella is at home she does not have a lot of time to study. She wakes up very early when the rooster crows at first light. She must gather water at a local well as her house does not have indoor plumbing. All the laundry is done by hand and hung outside to dry. She helps her mother prepare meals which are cooked over a charcoal fire. It is not like a stove in your home. If you want to make the fire hotter, you add wood and to cool it down, you take some wood out. Pots are placed on grates above the fire to cook. They do not have a refrigerator at their home so everyday they just prepare what they will eat so they do not need to store it. A lot of time is spent performing these basic activities of daily living and most of the chores are done by women or girls.