MATHARE YOUTH SPORTS ASSOCIATION

“MYSA has installed hope in my life. It showed me light and helped me to be what I thought I could never be”

I live with my brother in a slum area called Babadogo in Mathare. We live in a house made of a rusty iron sheet. It is always cold during the nights and very hot during the day.

My mother died in the post-election violence of 2008. She was my role model and she still is. My father died in the same year and since then, life has been difficult, even to meet our most basic needs.

Despite all the challenges I am determined to achieve my dreams and MYSA is helping me to do this. I joined MYSA when I was only five years old – it caught my attention with all its activities and the matches that it organises for young people. I joined as a young player and then I got training to become a coach. I am now one of the youngest coaches, coaching several teams in the community. I’m also involved with other projects.

My ambition is to become a professional journalist photographer, and I’m practicing for this through the MYSA shootback project where they recently selected me to participate in a three months photography and Videography exchange programme in Norway.

I want to use my skills to change lives in my community through creating awareness with pictures, articles and short movies which I am learning to make through MYSA. For sure, MYSA has installed hope in my life. It showed me light and helped me to be what I thought I could never be.