An Extraordinary Young Lady-Ms Wamaitha Mwangi...

Ms Wamaitha Mwangi is not only a very intelligent and beautiful young lass but also a phenomenal woman in her own right!She recently won the prestigious Pillar Awards Africa under the Humanitarian category in 2011.Find out in her own words what makes her a truly extra-ordinary young lady.

Wamaitha Mwangi- Humanitarian 2011 Pillar Awards Africa Winner.

 

My Heritage:

I am born and raised in Kenya and I am third born child in a family of four siblings. Two older sisters and a younger brother. By my parent’s estimates of all the kids, I was definitely the last one they would have imagined ever having.

My Passion:

But even in all my ups and downs, youthful madness, rebellion there was one thing that undeniably remained consistent within me, my love for kids. I was especially drawn to children with special needs. So in High School I became chairlady of the rangers club and I made sure that most of our trips were to children's homes and continued visiting different homes after high school to volunteer.

Further Studies in Ausi:

I went college in Australia. Initially I   wanted to study Special Education but I did not qualify for the course. However, to keep in line with my passion I opted to study Psychology at Notre Dame University with an emphasis on Child Psychology. While in Australia, I worked part time at a private home as a nanny to a boy with special needs for three years before I came back to Kenya in 2008.

Back Home:

When I came back home, I wanted to work with children so I went and enrolled for the Montessori training, but that didn't do it for me although I learned a lot from it. I always wanted to start a Home since I was about 21, so I decided that was the right time to do it.I started visiting Homes for research, some owners were harsh and others were very secretive. Not many people supported me especially at the very beginning. Family, close friends, relatives and even strangers felt that I was too young to do it.But thank God for the stubbornness my family feared…Ladies and Gentlemen may I present to you my passion and my calling:

How it all began:

My initial dream was for the Centre to be for children with special needs but the startup costs were very high for me especially in terms of the therapists, equipment, medicine and all. But with the resources that I had I decided to focus on infants. We registered Angel Centre for abandoned children with the NGO board of Kenya and got inspected and given the green light to take in the babies.

Our Humble Beginnings:

We started in a 1 bedroom apartment in Limuru where we had to finish the renovations ourselves. I met a lady in Tigoni who does the same thing and she really encouraged me and even donated two baby cots from her home to us. That was huge for me and the Home at the time because we had nothing. We started with 2 babies and 2 nannies who were full time volunteers.

We’ve come a long way:

A year and a half later and we have 11 babies aged between 1.5 months to 2 years old. We have 10 nannies, a watchman and social worker who are all on payroll. We are currently renting a 4 bedroom

House in Rironi Limuru.

Our biggest success:

3 months ago we had our first adoption from the home through KKPI Adoption Agency. Baby David was a year and two months old.

Challenges:

Though it’s been a rewarding year and half with the babies we have faced some very tough challenges, the hardest being losing baby Harrison on 9th February 2011. He had hydrocephalus and spinal bifida. He succumbed to this illness at 7 months old. He had been with us for 6 months. Further to that we have faced other challenges namely: Salaries-We struggle with their salaries because we run solely on funding from well-wishers. Medical Cover-We are not able to pay for the children's medical cover. We rely on Government hospitals and free medical checkups. Lack of Donors-This has been our biggest challenge as I mentioned above we run solely on well-wishers and although the children have never lacked food or clothing, we have a limited resources.

But I won’t give up:

We rescue abandoned children and give them a chance at life. In a few more years, they will be the people helping in growing their community and country. We could have saved a future President! We also provide employment to the nannies. We are just a year and five months and still crawling for lack of a better word but we have come a long way and the dream is still alive.

The Vision:

I envision us being able to purchase a piece of land for the Home so as to be able to have the freedom to use the land for projects such as farming, green houses etc. We also see ourselves expanding to other towns when we are fully on our feet. And one day maybe in the great East Africa! As long as there are abandoned children out there, Angel Centre will be there for them. Ladies and Gentlemen it has been a hard yet extremely rewarding journey. But the reason why this Pillar Awards means so much for me is because it recognizes the unique gift that women have, the ability to fight for what they believe in and their amazing ability to step away from the limelight for the sake of those whom they love. I stand here for my babies.  

To My Valentine.

February 14^th is just a couple of hours away. Unlike most other festivities, St. Valentine’s Day carries with it mixed emotions from both genders respectively. Whatever your view on the day, single, dating, married, separated, divorced, deceased or in a civil union, we all deserve to love and to be loved in return-not only on 14/2 but on all other days in the year!

Whitney Houston (rest her soul) affirmed others wise counsel, in one of her lyrics: that the greatest love is undeniably inside oneself. That said, one must start with self-love to love and be loved! I am no Christopher Hart to give relationship advice but having lived with me for close to quarter a century and loving myself with all my flaws and perfections(without being vain or stuck-up) I thought it would be very  sensible to write to my Valentine this year…(help him out a bit)

My dear Valentine, it is true that with age sometimes comes great wisdom. I have truly accepted that I am neither Cinderella nor you Prince Charming. Notwithstanding that, it does not give either of us an excuse not to try and live our very own composed fairy tale. I do believe that we can have that happy ever after but all those who said it comes easy without hard-work, structured and productive debates lied! I know somehow it will not always be stress-free and fun, but I honestly hope that majority of the time it will be!!

My precious,granted,we both love our culture and rich African-Roots! Respect in today’s World lucky for me and all other women and young girls in the Continent is a two way thing. You not respecting me and being a chauvinist doesn’t make you the ideal African hunk but rather that low-life all sisters want to avoid like the plague. If we BOTH do not respect ourselves and each other, this must come to an end. I know it is important to listen to the wise and old, but we must surely learn to filter out some ancient “advice” that our fore-fathers passed on to us and learn to really listen to each other. We are a team, both parties count, and should be consulted in decisions that ultimately affect us.

My love, as an educated young lass, I intend to work and be damn good at whatever I set out to be! I would really like your continued support and encouragement regardless of who is bringing the most bacon home! I do promise to be your biggest cheer-leader too and maybe even rub your feet sometimes after a long day’s work! I will obviously cook and clean and expect you to do the same when I am held up at work. This does not make you less of a man in my eyes, quite the contrary, I see that you are very thoughtful and considerate.

I DO NOT CARE which studies have proven that men are “naturally” polygamous!Hun,if you aren’t content with JUST ME, you can go hung literally! In today’s world of so many STIs and HIV/AIDS,I will let you know that I am solely responsible for my health and welfare. I refuse to stay with any man who does not respect that and who might take me to meet my Maker prematurely! Even if society says its kinda-ok for you to have other ‘mpangos’ on the side,I vehemently decline to be part and parcel of this arrangement. Society will not help pay my medical bills or raise our orphan children-now will they? I am telling you dearest, it’s either me or the highway!

So my love, you see this year and always, the flowers, romantic dinners, pricey jewellery though thoughtful aren’t really what I want. You see, what I desire isn’t sold in any retail shop.Love,respect,faithfulness,support aren’t that natural in many relationships and they would be the greatest gift this valentine and forever!

HACKER HACKED!!!

A couple of days after my first blog post this year my Gmail account got hacked into!!My hacker claiming to be called “David” had the audacity to text me and brag at his sick accomplishment…His first mistake was to hack into my account; his second mistake was to text me using his cellphone number which of course I am inserting here for all to see. Beware of cell number +254713605977…and he kept piling up on the blunders!

For 33 days I could not access my account or blog! I was sad, scared near depressed, angry…I felt so exposed and so violated!!I know it’s just an account but when someone else can access your personal emails without your express consent, and can go to the extent of usurping you, you feel like a piece of you has been stolen. For most part of early January therefore I was busy trying to retrieve my account and get access to it.My settings were all altered such that when I tried logging into my authentic account, I looked like the hacker! David had made sure to frustrate all my recovery efforts and even activated the two-step verification such that whenever I tried changing the password or filling in the authentication form he got an SMS…wait for it….sent to him on his cell-phone…by yours truly, Google!!!

As a GSA (Google Student Ambassador) you would have thought that I would have this “little” hacking problem sorted out ASAP! But shock on you!!!Don’t get me wrong I have nothing against Google, in fact I love being a Googler and thought of as some Google genius on my campus. But men-where were Google when I needed them? Is it too much to help a sister out at her dire hour of need? Anyhow, so I filled in thousands of authentication forms blah...blah...blah…and I am still waiting to hear officially from the Google Recovery Team in regard to the hacked account. Did I say it’s been 33 days and counting? I understand that they probably get a zillion such requests in a day but an automated response reassuring me that all will be well would have done just fine.

For obvious reasons January was a S…L…O…W month. You can imagine my frustration every time I had to Google something; I couldn’t help but think of my account and what wickedness David might be up to. I became addicted to checking my blog least something scandalous was posted in my name! After much huff, I decided to move on as I wasn’t getting far sulking and cursing this criminal! It is true that despite everything the sun still comes out and boy was it shining in Nairobi this past few weeks of 2012!Thinking positively despite everything is hard work. But this ordeal helped me get my AHA moment for one of my term papers which I was having difficulties constructing. It focused on the right to privacy and my lectures seem to love it already! Next, in spirit of positivity I knew I was going to get my account back…BIG TIME!!This I decided was by either by hook or crook.

I embarked on mission ‘get my account back’. I will not go into the nitty gritty of how I managed to get my account back(lest this buffoon is reading this)but I thought it is prudent to  share with you some things you might want to do to protect yourself from such a horrendous  ordeal.

•  Firstly, change your password(today)or frequently especially if you use a shared computer or access your account in a cyber!

•   Use a strong password usually incorporating caps,numbers,symbols etc….

•   Do not use obvious passwords. Foreign languages,vernacular are preferred.

•   Passwords should be undisclosed. Do not share the same with others or save a list of other accounts and their passwords on any account.

•   Activate the two step verification code on your Gmail account. A verification code will be sent to your cell phone upon request every time you want to log in.

•   If you must access your account on a smart phone, include the two step verification as well; and use a different password too! Sign out especially when you don’t need to be online.

•   Turn off blue-tooth devices when not in use.

•   De-junk your account, delete emails you no longer need and empty your trash ever so often.

•   You really don’t want to add people you don’t know on any social media you are using. Limit the information you put out there especially in regard to your accounts, information about you etc.

•   Use different passwords for every account, especially your recovery account! Imagine having two accounts hacked into at once!!!!

•   Avoid sending,forwarding,replying to emails with a bunch of recipients you do not know.

•     Keep checking the account setting-you might just stumble upon something that might help you up your security features.

Wish you a hacked free account!

We are delighted that two University of London Laws students in Kenya are excelling in prestigious international Mooting Competitions. Catherine Kiama and Lilian Nyaga of Inoorero University in Nairobi were placed in the top ten English speaking universities in the African Human Rights Moot Competition which took place in South Africa. This Competition has become the largest annual gathering on the continent of students and lecturers of law. Established in 1992, 975 teams from 129 universities, representing 48 African countries, have over the last 19 years participated in this premier event on the university and human rights calendar of the continent. Building on this success, Catherine and Lilian went on to win the East African Arbitration Moot Competition and have now both secured internships with top legal firms in Nairobi. Patricia McKellar of the Laws programme met Catharine and Lilian in Nairobi and was pleased to present them with a gift from University of London as recognition of their achievements. We wish them both every success in their future careers.

http://laws.londoninternational.ac.uk/2012/01/success-for-kenyan-law-students/