Eunice Odhiambo

Meet Eunice Odhiambo, mother to Rodgers Onyango, a Form 2 student at St. Aloysius Gonzaga Secondary School. She is a mother of five boys, with Rodgers being the second born. She is a widow and small-scale business woman who sells fish and makes an average of $3 a day in profits. This is what sustains her and help pay her house rent of $50 a month. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, her fish vending business has been really affected since majority of people would rather spend their little resources on cheaper foods.

In March 2020 this year, Eunice faced a rather sad and unusual experience in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. When the first corona virus case was diagnosed in Kenya in March, the entire country went into a meltdown. People were generally anxious and nobody, including the government, had clear-cut answers to the numerous questions that were flying around. It changed the way people operated, and relationships were redefined. One morning, her firstborn son developed COVID-like symptoms and was rushed to the hospital where he was admitted for 4 days only to be diagnosed with strong pneumonia that kept him in the hospital for another 21 weeks.

Back at home, rumors were flying around that the son had contacted the dreaded COVID-19. This would have made the son the first case of COVID-19 in Kibera slums. Carrying that tag wasn’t an easy task. All their friends and neighbors disappeared and before she knew it, the poor widow was alone with her children facing serious isolation.  As if the psychological trauma wasn’t enough, the son was temporarily paralyzed upon leaving the hospital.  The family endured great pain that emanated from the discrimination and stigma they faced from their neighbors and friends.  In eyes of many, the family was cursed and brought corona virus into their rather peaceful neighborhood. For more than two weeks they agonizingly stayed indoors with little or no help at all. Having lost her husband in 2017, she was living at the mercy of very few well-wishers and neighbors. Her business was threatened and she had to secure small loan from a women’s group to help revamp her business. Fortunately, it wasn’t a case of COVID-19 and this brought huge reprieve to the family and their entire neighborhood.

According to Eunice, St. Al’s is doing a great job of reaching out to the very needy in the community and she’s a living testimony. Unlike her firstborn son who couldn’t continue with his secondary education due to lack of funds, the school is there to support Rodgers and all her hopes are banked on him. Eunice has been a beneficiary of the food packages that the school has been providing to the students and their families every two week since April this year. Were it not for the support, she reflects, her life would have been totally different. According to her, the school has literally reduced her problems by more than half since she only has to worry about paying her house rent from the little she earns from her business. Her message to the well-wishers and supporters of St. Aloysius, “thanks for being kind to us”.