RISING FROM
NOTHING TO EDUCATING HERSELF-NO HUMAN IS LIMITED.
Meet Ann Kangai a
mass communication student and a hustler concurrently. When you get her in the
midst of other traders at Kongowea whole sale market Mombasa, you might take
her for just a normal trader but Ann has a got a different story to tell.
Ann who hails from
Tharaka Nithi County tells how she moved from her county of birth to Mombasa
back in 2017 after completing her secondary education to visit her elder
brother in Mombasa. Having completed form four level by fate due to the
challenges she had gone through during the course, Ann had no hope of advancing
to higher learning institution since she had no one to cater for her fees. She
painfully narrates how she would spend days at home for failure to meet payment
of her school fees and she would study only for a few weeks before to exam.
However despite all these ups and downs, she had always had hope to one day
pursue the course of her dream.
Upon relocating to
her brother’s place, she started helping him run a tomatoes retailing business
he owned since she could not just lie idle. After spending some months in her
new environment, Ann says she realized that she could find a task to earn her
own living rather than depending on her brother. `I realized that instead of
just helping my brother at his work place, it would be better I operate on my
own to be dependent”, Ann says. At this point, she started hawking detergents
to households in the estates where she was living. She would buy chemicals and
prepare the product on her own before
packing it in used drinking water bottles. `With ksh 200,I could get chemicals
enough to make 10 litres detergent which I would sell at ksh 20 per 500ml
bottle”, she explains.
However, it was not
long before her brother started complaining of her hustle stating that she was
disturbing her customers when she went knocking at their houses to supply them
with her product.Luckly,she had saved enough by then and she now ventured into
selling mitumba clothing which also favored her. It was after engaging into
this new venture that she was able to save an amount that enabled her secure a
table at Kongowea market and she could now retail her own tomatoes. `I was able
to kick off well since I had already some established customers when I had been
working for my brother”, she adds.
Ann dint give up but
she instead worked harder since she knew that she had no one on her side and so
she had to well play her cards. For all this time, her hope to advance her
education was still burning in her and so she made a move to enroll to
Technical university of Mombasa for a diploma in mass communication in May
2018.She used the amount she had saved to pay her first fees of about Ksh40
,000 and believed that that the
following semester would find her well.
Ann Kangai preparing her tomato table at Kongowea market,Mombasa.photo/Denis mutua
Since then Ann has
continued working at her hustle which has sustained her in school paying a
semester fee of about Ksh 35,000 and also caters for her upkeep, including
paying her rent without depending on anyone. However working and studying
concurrently has not been smooth as she says. `I am awake at 4am to prepare so
that I am at work at around 5am to attend to my morning customers who most
operate their own stalls in estates like Tudor,Bamburi and Buxton” complements
Ann.
Another challenge is
balancing of her work and studies. Ann explains how sometimes she finds herself
at cross road having a lesson in the morning hours which is her most engaging
time at work. `When I am held at work I am at times forced by circumstances to
skip a class and do a follow up later to recover what others have learnt in
class”, she says. Tackling assignments is also challenging since I have very
less free time and when I return to my room am much worn out having worked all
day long making it hard to do my personal studies” she adds. Despite these
hardships, she has continued performing exemplary well in her studies and now
she is in her final round up of her studies hoping to graduate soon. Her story
proves that there is no hurdle in life that one can’t overcome and make it but
only by being determined enduring and focused.
Finally,Ann has a
word to other hopeless and desperate youths out there.She advises that life
circumstances has tought her that being born in humble background,should not
hinder one from achieving what one has always yearned"Though achieving
goals in this state of life requires alot determination,hardwork,endurance and
being prayerful to remain in motion"adds Ann.
Comments
Post a Comment