A Living Encouragement

I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to see the non-profit Seeds for Hope grow from a stirring in my friend Nadia Kist’s heart after we visited Kenya together in 1999 to the deeply impactful non-profit it is today. Today I have the privilege of sharing a guest post with you by Victor Wanjala, a young man from Nairobi, Kenya who is a Seeds for Hope Jeremiah Scholar. The Jeremiah Scholarship Program supports the education of Kenya’s most vulnerable youth through mentorship and financial support. More than 300 students have graduated high school and college through this program. Victor has now graduated high school and is looking forward to a career in computer science. In his essay below, he shares about his community and his dreams for Kenya.

To make a donation to Seeds for Hope today on #GivingTuesday, visit board member Grace Attwa’s fundraising page on Facebook here and your donation will be eligible for a match from Facebook. If you would rather not donate through Facebook, you can donate directly on the Seeds for Hope website here.

by Victor Wanjala

I would love to see a society where the role of the youth is to renew, refresh and maintain resources. A youth that will have the urge to renew and refresh the current status of our society including leadership, innovations, skills etc. A youth that is expected to advance the current technology, education, politics, peace of the country. A youth that will be bold enough to volunteer for community projects, bold enough to fight for the rising injustices in Kenya and a youth that will stand and say no to crime and drug abuse.

Closing my eyes, this is a people I see, a people with whom we feel some sense of belonging or interpersonal connection. These are people that mean the world to me. This because here is where my family is, the inner circle of my friends is from, people who influence whatever I do. Some of the people I look up to, some of them I get advice from. For example, with advice from my mentors, family, and friends, I decided to focus my career on computer science. My community means a great deal for me because being the person that I am I absolutely owe it to my community.

And yet, most of the people in our community look up to me. Even in my family, despite my being the lastborn, my family has so much hopes in me. This is something that is always my driving force. Outside of my family, the kids I teach in Sunday school, my neighbors and my friends look up to me not just because of any advice I give to them but the motivation that I give them that things will just be better because hope is what keeps us moving out here. Still, I believe am not yet there. I want to become more of a living encouragement, a living example, by continuing with my studies, excelling, and showing them that a lot of persons like me can step forward and together we can build the society we have all wanted.

Victor Wanjala is a graduate Scholar of the Seeds for Hope Jeremiah Scholarship Program. In 2014, he received an academic scholarship to attend and complete his high school education and graduated in 2018. Post-graduation he was admitted into the Good Kenyan mentorship program in 2019, an organization that partners with SFH. Although his initial aspiration was to become a civil engineer, through skills exposure in his gap-year, he fell in love with computers and technology. He is currently applying for Computer Science programs at local colleges. He is the youngest of three boys in his family and lives in Nairobi, Kenya.

Support the Jeremiah Scholarship Program by making a donation to Seeds for Hope on #GivingTuesday.