A Second Chance! Oyaya Nekalayo Story:
Oyaya Nekalayo hails from a family of nine siblings from Kajiado county. She is the last born in a family of six girls and three boys and she is a full orphan. After the death of her father, her elder sister, Margaret, took custody of Oyaya. With time her sister's husband left them to fend for themselves with Margaret becoming the breadwinner for her five children and Oyaya. She works looking daily for casual jobs such as selling pickled tomatoes from a nearby farm or fetching water. With this low level of income, her sister could not manage to help Oyaya transition past primary school since she couldn’t afford secondary school fees. When Oyaya completed primary school she was sure that she would not have any chance to proceed to high school. The only option she had was joining her sister at work or getting married at the age of 14.
Light Up Hope announced the scholarship opportunity in her community, Oyaya was not one of the few who were chosen during the initial shortlisting. Two of her classmates in her school were among those who managed to get the scholarship. Her headteacher at Iltilal Primary School requested the Light Up Hope team to visit her home just to get her background story in hopes that a space could be found for Oyaya. During the home visit, she was found to be living in a very desperate situation. Unfortunately, at the time there was nothing the team could do since the slots were all issued an Oyaya sadly went back looking for casual labor and helping her sister take care of the younger siblings and the tomato garden.
Lucky enough, two weeks alter the sponsorship department secured a slot and the first person to be considered by the team was Oyaya. The team called her sister, Margaret, and broke the good news! Oyaya and her sister cried tears of joy. Oyaya Nekalayo was awarded a full scholarship where fees and supplies were provided by Light Up Hope. With this intervention and through the efforts of the Light Up Hope staff, Oyaya managed to get a chance at the famous, highly prestigious and top performing, Materi Girls Secondary School in Meru. Oyaya is now happy and comfortable in class studying with others.
