Josephat Kitonyi

My name is Josephat Kitonyi, a 2022 graduate of St. Aloysius Gonzaga Secondary School.  I scored a mean grade of B- on the Kenyan Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exam. This will allow me to access a government scholarship to pursue a degree course at the university. Currently, I’m undertaking my community service program at Spur Afrika in the Kibera slums.  This is a non-profit organization which provides quality education, health, and life skills to underprivileged children and young adults in both Nairobi and Kisumu. For four years before the community service and the national examinations, I enjoyed a wonderful experience at St. Aloysius Gonzaga. My school has a supportive environment with friendly staff, a mentorship program that imparts life skills in us, and a school counsellor with whom we could share our problems and struggles without fear. To me, the school is one of the best, if not the best, in Kenya. The most fundamental values I have acquired from the school are strictly based on the school values such as human dignity, integrity, solidarity, Ignatian spirituality, and social justice. These values  guide me in the actions and decisions that I undertake community service and in the world.

At Spur Afrika, I have had an exceptional experience mainly because working at the organization requires a lot of commitment and openness to learning. Often, I conduct home visits and programs on behalf of the staff. The home visits have been an eye-opener about what the families of the children undergo at home. Each family has a unique story. The experience is simply humbling! Serving these families helps me to put smiles on the students’ faces because the program monitors their academic performances as well as addresses challenges and impediments to academic success.  There are also mentorship programs which help children understand the impact that education has on their future. The most exciting fact about the mentorship programs is that the children are given an opportunity to choose their mentor based on their own interests.  We also participate in oral hygiene programs in different schools around Kibera and Langata.  In the oral hygiene programs, we teach 1st-5th grade students how to brush their teeth through songs and games, and after the lessons, we give them toothbrushes and toothpaste. The school ministries enable us to teach the children about the word of God in different schools around Kibera.

I am thoroughly enjoying my community service. My motivation to do community service stems from my passion to help people. Having been brought up by a single mother, I clearly understand the importance of supporting others and mentoring them to be better people in the future. Some of the values that I always strive to impart especially to young people include good time management, critical thinking, and respect for self and others. These values have molded me to be who I am today. Spur Afrika has given me an opportunity to share some of these values with the young people in my community as I wait to join University in September to pursue a career in Cyber Security, specifically cloud security. Just like I believe it is important to preserve and protect hard-earned values, I also believe that it is important to protect personal and institutional data from external interferences. This is what informs my desire to pursue this course. Hopefully, after four years on campus, I will become an expert on cyber security and protect important data from cyber-attacks. God-willing I will open my own firm dealing with cyber security. Thanks to St. Al’s for nurturing me into who I am today. Tomorrow I will be even a better person!