I hope everybody at Wells Mountain Foundation is fine. I am fine too and I thank God for that.
First of all I would like to thank you for the work you are doing. It is a great pleasure and honor to have been chosen as one of the WMF scholars.
A famous philosopher once said that if life gives you a hundred reasons to cry, show life that you have a thousand reasons to smile. This scholarship opportunity is just but one of the most important reasons why I am smiling again. It has given me hope and determination to achieve my set goals and objectives. I am now more concerned and determined to succeed in my mission and I have single-minded devotion to achieve this. I am now focused and not ready to give up on anything I embark on, even when obstacles come my way.
We have been on long vacation over the past five months. We closed the university on August to pave way for the other group due to the high population at Kenyatta University. However, we have commenced this semester. We opened on January 10th this year and I am currently on session.
During the long holiday, I was involved in various activities among them community service. The Kenyatta University Community Outreach and Extension Program (COEP) organized and facilitated the volunteer activity for interested students and when I applied I was selected as one of the volunteers. I was involved in community service at AIC Nairobi Training Centre in Kibera, one of the biggest slums in Nairobi. I interacted with the students within the centre and I talked to them about contemporary issues affecting the youth such as HIV/AIDS, drugs and substance abuse, education, health and nutrition. I demonstrated the correct use of contraceptives for sexually active youth as well as prevention and control of HIV/AIDS. I even clarified some of the misconceptions especially on HIV/AIDS, drugs and nutrition. I was in AIC Nairobi Training Centre for two weeks from August 13th to August 24th 2012 and the certificates are yet to be issued. I will email it to you as soon as I get it. (photos of some of the AIC students and me is attached).
In my own community I attended some of the women group meetings. One such group is Kopiya Fashion. I informed them on the need to register their group with the Government of Kenya. Through such an action, I explained, they would be able to secure credit facilities such as loans from banks, Kenya Women Finance Trust and Ministry of Gender and Development. Though they had put the merry-go-round in place, I reminded them of the need to open a group bank account, start saving and later invest their money. A good investment opportunity that I suggested to them was real estate. The major challenge I encountered was that some of the members could not embrace such changes due to ignorance and misinformation about credit facilities. Despite the challenges, the Kopiya Fashion Women Group bought me a dozen of plates at the end of the year 2012 as a token of appreciation for my contribution to their group.
Above all, once again I would like to thank the Wells Mountain Foundation for giving me such an opportunity to pursue my dreams.
Many Thanks, Brian Juma Omala
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