Today we hear from Joseph Njenga, Coordinator of eduKenya's Home Based Care program. This remarkable man began as a volunteer and now oversees eduKenya's outreach to people living with HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening conditions. His job entails conducting home visits, where he provides spiritual and emotional support, leading support groups and connecting participants to clinics that provide free care and antiretroviral drugs. Additionally, Mr. Njenga teaches participants income generating skills making small handicrafts such as hats, jewelry and mats. We are inspired by Mr. Njenga's compassion and commitment to the people he serves, and are very grateful to have him on the team![caption id="attachment_391" align="alignleft" width="300"]

Joseph Njenga
Coordinator, Home Based Care program[/caption]Joseph Njenga: I was born in Kiambu County, which is just north of Kenya’s capital city, Nairobi. I am the second born in a family of seven children. I grew up in a Christian home and was taught to love God. Education was considered a basic necessity, and my parents made sure that my siblings and I attended school. Despite various hardships, I worked hard in school and scored well on my final exam.After high school, I was sponsored to take a course in health management/home based care. In 2008, I started volunteering with the Kwa Watoto project (then under the oversight of the Kenya Children Project). Though I didn’t grow up in Mathare, I could relate to much of what I saw and experienced in the slum from my upbringing. I was often sent home from school because I couldn’t pay the school fees, and was hungry at times, even going several days in a row without eating. Therefore, it was not difficult for me to relate with the people of Mathare.After volunteering for three years, I was employed as a staff member in 2011, overseeing the Home Based Care program. The eduKenya team believes in my abilities and gave me the opportunity to be a part of reaching our vision of self-sustainable development for the transformation of Mathare.Besides serving the Mathare community, I am a gospel musician and spend most of my leisure time writing songs and listening to music. On weekends I visit various churches and events, ministering and spreading love and hope to people through songs. I am also a youth leader in church and find pleasure in serving God in whatever way I can.

I am happy to be part of what God is doing here in Mathare through eduKenya. Children are being empowered through getting quality education and families are being transformed. Soon a child will get to the moon as an astronaut, another will perform a successful surgery in a local hospital, another will come back and teach the next generation of Mathare children, while another will fly me on a Kenya Airways plane as I go on tour abroad. I believe these children will reach their dreams and it will happen because we believed in their potential. My experience here has had a great impact in my life and even inspired me to write lyrics to a song that begins like this:With Jesus by my side, I can do anythingYes I canAnd I know I can make it, if I put my mind in itYes I canYou can achieve all you perceive in your visions, if you only believeTake a step of faith, do what you say