Joab, 12, seemed poised to succeed in school, but some months after our first visit, his mother became ill and at the age of 28, died. Overcome by grief, Joab dropped out of school and spent a whole month roaming the streets before a former teacher convinced him to return to school. Since being back at school, he has been a model student, ranking third in his class.
Following the death of Joab’s mother, his father re-married and abandoned the family. At 15, Joab is the head of his household in Kibera, the largest slum in Nairobi, Kenya. He manages to stay at the top of his class while also looking after his two younger siblings but it is often a struggle to find food.
Joab graduated from primary school but the transition to a boarding secondary school was a rocky one and he dropped out. He spent some time on the streets of Kibera and eventually was taken to his grandmother’s farm in rural Kenya. Now he says “I would follow any rule just for me to be in school. I’d do anything just for me to stay there.”
With the help of his former teacher, Pauline Nabawana, Joab was able to return to school and is now in his third year of high school. Only 35 percent of the students who started school in 2003 have graduated from have school. Joab hopes to be one of them.
