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Dominic teaching math[/caption]It has been seven years since I joined the Kwa Watoto School. Sometimes I find myself in tears when I look back on my life since high school. I completed high school in 2004 and, not having been equipped in how to choose a career, was confused about what to do next. I spent two years of wandering without any focus. By 2006 I was miserable and decided to go to Nairobi to look for a job. While there, my uncle introduced me to construction work, which paid a meager 200 Kenyan Shillings ($2.38) per day.I experienced great difficulty for months until one of my relatives introduced me to the Believers’ Centre Church in the Jangwani village of the Mathare slum. I became a member of the church and served as a Sunday school teacher. It was at this time that I felt God started visiting me in a mighty way. First, the church sponsored me to take computer studies. Second, I was able to volunteer as a teacher of young children at the Kwa Watoto School. My future started looking bright. I completed the computer course in four months and continued serving as a volunteer teacher.I continued seeing God’s hand in my life when I was offered employment at the Kwa Watoto School in 2007. I was advised to get training as a teacher at a local college. I applied and was selected for a school-based diploma program, which involved teaching full-time at the school and taking intensive teaching classes during the three weeks of holidays. My dreams and aspirations were nurtured and given direction, leading me to the career choice of teaching that is now the passion of my life.[caption id="attachment_538" align="alignright" width="267"]

Dominic with Kwa Watoto students[/caption]What really motivated me to become a teacher of young children is that I want to make a difference in their lives. I noticed that very few children in the slum have good, if any, male influence in their lives. Many of them do not have a father or father figure, and there are very few male teachers in the youngest classes. I am passionate about teaching these children, and am currently pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education and Special Needs from the Africa Nazarene University in Nairobi.I thank God for the Kwa Watoto School, which has enabled me to grow in my faith, career and personal life. My experience has helped me become independent, self-sufficient and hard working. It has taught me a great deal of discipline, time management and good morals, and to value relationships and have a positive attitude towards work in order to achieve my goals.I can confidently say that by the grace of God, my experience of teaching at the school has transformed me. Kwa Watoto has nurtured me from nothing to something, a monumental change I also see in my students. A helpless community is in the midst of transformation, and I thank God because I have witnessed and am a living testimony of this.