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Stories of Hope, Joy and Faith
President/CEO Stanley Mutunga interviews Joel MutukuJanuary, 2014

We are beginning a series of stories of Hope, Joy and Faith.  This edition features an interview by Tumaini International Ministries President/CEO, Stanley Mutunga and former Tumaini sponsored child, Joel Mutuku. Joel was sponsored by a family in the U.S. and is going to share from the perspective of a sponsored child growing up in Kenya.

 

Joel Mutuku

Stanley:  I wanted to start by asking you to describe how it was growing up in Kenya.  Is there anything you remember the most growing up as a small child?

 

Joel:  Well I grew up in a small family, my dad, mom, brother and sister. It was a great fun, we had a great family. But we had something happen.  I lost both of my parents and then we had a rough childhood.  I cannot say that I enjoyed my teenage years.  I went through so many hardships in life and things that happened through elementary and high school until I was able to be sponsored by Tumaini International Ministries- and that is when my life changed.

 

Stanley:  We are talking about hope and joy and faith and I was wondering if you can look back, when is the last time you felt hopeless and how did that turn around?

 

Joel:  In the year 2002 that is when everything was messed up.  That is when I lost my mom and there was nobody to pay for my high school tuition.  I was about to go to high school, and I wondered what I was going to do about this.  I tried to seek help from my family members, but they could not help because the entire family was poor. I stayed back for some time, and I was then lucky enough to find somebody to pay for my first two years (of high school). I was lucky enough to get into Tumaini in the year 2004, and that is when I was able to go to school without being sent back for tuition. I really think that is when my life changed, and I focused and worked hard and started setting goals because I wanted to do so many great things; but when my parents were gone it was really hard.

Stanley Mutunga

 Stanley:  Thank you so much for sharing that.  If you can look back and just see the turnaround and the hope that you now feel you have and talk to other kids who find themselves today in the similar situation, what would be your advice to children or young people who are going through what you have gone through?

 

Joel:  I'll start with a big problem back home where other people are being brought up in that kind of society and don't talk about the kind of challenges that they have gone through.  I would advise kids to surround themselves with good people that they can trust and share their hardships with them, because you never know someone may be willing to help you or to advise you on what to do in life. Don't just keep those all hardships to yourself because it will hurt you at the end of the day. People are out there, we have good people in this world who are out there who are always ready to help and support where we can.  It is always good to share, and through sharing your experiences and sharing your challenges someone will get something out of it; I think it is no good to keep going through hardships by yourself without expressing them to other people.

 

Stanley:  I know you are about to graduate from the University with your first degree and congratulations in advance, I know you have a few more months to finish.  Have you thought about your goals? Are there things that you are hoping that you will be able to accomplish after you are done with your studies?

 

Joel:  At some point when I was a young kid in high school, I never knew that one day I was going to come to the US and I always  kept saying, 'I want to be a politician, I want to change my country' but for the few years I have been here in the US, I have realized that things change and I really need to focus on what I can do right now.  I have learned that I don't need to be a politician to change my country. I can start with the small things that I can do right now and one of my goals is that I want to start my own business when I go back home.  I don't really want to work for someone else, I want to create jobs because this is the only way I can help the country because when you create a job for someone they will be able to feed their families, they will be able to have food on the table.  Instead of them worrying about where the food will come from, they will focus on helping their family, developing their country and that is one of my biggest goals as a young man right now.

 

Stanley: Wow, wonderful! We wish you the very best in your endeavors to create work in a country that so desperately needs job creation.  Let me ask you if there is one more thing, one last thing you that you would like to share with the people reading this? What would that be?

 

Joel:  First I want to thank Tumaini and the sponsors and donors that we have right now. I want them to understand one thing: helping these kids like me, it's like helping the entire society. Because if you bring this kid out of poverty you are helping the entire country, and they will work because they don't need to depend on anyone else.  At some point they will be able to depend on themselves. I think that everything that Tumaini is doing and other organizations are doing around the world and especially in Africa is one of the greatest things that anybody can do in this world.  I really want to thank Tumaini for making me who I am today.

 

Stanley: Thank you so much Joel, and may God bless you as you finish and as you head back to Kenya. We wish you the very best.

  

Listen to this interview via podcast:  : Stories of Hope and Joy: Interview with Joel Mutuku