Mwanaidi Rajabu Mariko

Quietly sitting outside her modest home, Mwanaidi Rajabu Mariko works each day to care for her household despite declining health and limited means.

Mwanaidi Rajabu Mariko was born in 1945 in Shitao, Kakamega County, as the eighth child in a family of nine. Her early childhood was defined by significant home duties, and over time, all eight of her siblings passed away, leaving her as the sole surviving child of her family.

She never had the chance to step inside a classroom or receive any formal education because her parents lacked money for school fees. Without basic schooling, she faced constant regrets as she grew up, unable to access skilled employment or stable work opportunities.

Following her school years, Mwanaidi remained at home assisting her parents, who had no formal employment or steady income. Because her father lived with severe visual impairment, she spent her days helping him navigate daily tasks and accompanying him whenever he traveled to resolve community disputes.

She was later married and raised ten children, consisting of seven sons and three daughters. To feed her growing family, she spent long hours tilling neighbors' land and weeding sugarcane farms for small food portions, but the limited returns often left her family sleeping on empty stomachs.

Tragedy weighed heavily on her household as five of her children passed away over the years. Her surviving children completed basic primary schooling through manual farm labor, but none secured formal employment, forcing them to survive on casual labor while two of her grandchildren remained entirely in her care.

Her hardships deepened as she developed severe ulcers and chronic arthritis, enduring sharp abdominal pain for nearly two decades without proper medical treatment. Without money to afford specialized surgery or hospital care, she was forced to return home, leaving her physical movement strictly limited.

Relief reached her when a friend's child at the local mosque noticed her household's struggles and reported her condition to program representatives in Amalemba. Mama Ibado officers subsequently visited her home, assessed her critical living situation, and officially enrolled her into the seniors program on April 1, 2023.

"I used to worry endlessly about where our next meal would come from, but now my home is assured of food every month," Mwanaidi says.

Today, Mwanaidi receives essential monthly food rations, including maize flour, porridge flour, rice, sugar, tea leaves, salt, and cooking oil, which has removed the constant burden of hunger.

However, enduring severe arthritis and chronic ulcers without a steady income leaves her household in urgent need of donor assistance to afford specialized medical treatment and support her young grandchildren.