Rose Nambuya

Rose Nambuya was born in Bungoma in 1964. She grew up in a family of four children.

She did not go to school because both of her parents died when she was still young. Without her parents, life became very difficult, and there was no money for her school fees. Instead of going to school, she stayed at home to work. She spent her days doing housework and farming to help support her brothers and sisters.

Later, she moved to Kakamega and got married in Busulwa village, where she gave birth to five children. Her husband did not have a job and just stayed at home, so she had to wash clothes and farm for neighbors to pay for her children's primary school until they reached class eight.

She could not afford to send them to high school because her body became too tired and her strength ran out. Her family went through hard times, including the death of her husband after he fell sick and the death of one of her children.

The remaining four children grew up without a good education and now do casual jobs like construction work and manual farming, which do not bring in enough food or money.

Life remained very hard for Rose, who now lives in a mud house where she frequently went to bed hungry and once even stayed for a whole week without a proper meal. To get a single container of maize, she still goes to people's houses to clean and do chores despite her old age.

She came to know about the Mama Ibado Seniors Feeding Programme while walking around looking for casual work, where she saw food being given out and went to check. The project team saw that she looked very weak and sick, so they visited her home to see how she was living. After seeing her situation, they registered her into the program on December 4, 2023, and she began receiving monthly food like rice, flour, cooking oil, sugar, salt, and tea leaves.

"I used to sleep hungry for days and became too weak to work, but now I get food every month and have recovered my physical strength."

Rose is very grateful to Mama Ibado for helping her and bringing food to her table when she had no other hope.

She still needs regular help from well-wishers because she lives in a rented mud house and cannot afford basic needs or medicine from the little money she makes.