Faith’s Story

Faith is the last born in a family of eight children, three boys and five girls. She comes from a rural village within West Pokot district.

In Pokot culture, a boy child is given more opportunity than the girl child, and this is what happened to Faith and her sisters. Her parents overlooked the girls at the expense of the boys. Unfortunately, being the last born and the youngest, taking care of the animals was Faith’s work and her sisters assisted their mother in house chores.

Faith said: “When I was only 11 years old, all my other sisters had been married off at a tender age, and my father wanted to force me to undergo FGM and marry me off. It was hard for me to accept the reality that I was going to get married”.

A few days before she was to undergo the traditional rite of passage, Faith ran for her life. Sneaking through the bushes to avoid coming into contact with people who may have known her, she searched for a place of safety. Along the way, she met a school girl her age. “The girl was dressed in uniform (Murpus Rescue Primary School uniform),” Faith said. “She looked nice in them and I was tempted to ask her where she was coming from.”

The girl told Faith a lot about the school, invited her home and offered to take her to school the following day.

The following day, Faith was introduced to the head teacher of Morpus school, James Lokuk. James listened to Faith’s story and accepted her to enter the rescue Center. “I was given uniform, books and personal belongings to make me comfortable,” Faith said. “The head teacher has been very instrumental in our lives, he is like a parent to us. Nobody comes to see us, and so he is our father.”

“Because of her age, she joined grade five,” Lokuk said of Faith. “When she was coming, she looked shy but with time she started to cope with the school environment. She is a hardworking girl, she has done well since then and now she is in grade eight”

He said he expected her to pass grade eight and move on to secondary school.

When she was asked about her life after Murpus, Nawai said, “Nilikuwa nimemwachia Mungu mambo yote, vile alinitoa kwenye meno ya simba hapo mwanzo, hata hii atanitoa. (I have left everything in the hands of God, just like he took me away from the lion’s teeth then, even now He will do it, I believe in Him).” She continued, “Now with World Vision providing us with a secondary school, I don’t have anything to say, just to thank God for opening ways for me. I can now see my dream of being a nurse becoming a reality. My part now is to work hard and pass the exams; everything else is taken care of. I can’t express the happiness that I have. I had been hearing about other children going to secondary school and I had lost hope for myself, but now I am seeing higher chances of joining secondary school like other fortunate girls in the
community.”

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