Agnes has suffered from Marfan Syndrome since birth. While Marfan Syndrome can affect many organs of the body, Agnes is fortunate that it only appears to have affected her eyes.

Agnes’s school principal took a special interest in her years ago and went above and beyond her own resources to help Agnes. This included allowing her to have more time to take exams as well as reading questions to her, but there were several bigger challenges looming.

The principal reached out to Foothold early in 2022 observing that Agnes’s vision had significantly deteriorated and her final exams were approaching in early December 2022. Her principal had petitioned the Ministry of Education for Agnes to receive specialized accommodations of a large-print test and additional time, but those requests were ignored in spite of her repeated letters, calls and documentation.

The 8th-grade exam is the highest stakes test that Kenyan students take: it determines if they even qualify for high school and which schools they are permitted to attend since Kenyan high schools are designated and ranked by student test scores.

In spite of her condition, Agnes has consistently performed at the top of her class every year. With her family’s lack of resources, Agnes qualifying for a high-ranking high school could be an incredible opportunity for her and her family.

Another challenge facing Agnes is the fact that the very accommodations that helped her in primary school would not likely to be available to her as she entered high school. Students like her with disabilities often drop out of school. While there are several schools for the blind in Kenya, they can be expensive and far away from her family.

A group of educators from Chillicothe, Ohio gave $500 to our high school tuition scholarship. I reached out to them to see if they would be interested in diverting some of the funds to help Agnes get appropriate glasses since not all of her school fees would be due at once. We estimated her glasses would cost approximately $100.

In October 2022, Agnes was taken to the Lions International Hospital in Mombasa where she saw several specialists who concluded that glasses would not help her. She needed surgery which would cost $500, thus using up her entire tuition scholarship for the year. We decided to go ahead and allocate the funds to her surgery.

Her surgery was unfortunately pushed back due to scheduling and the discovery that she needed surgery in both eyes. We were also concerned that scheduling the surgery too close to her exams could be risky, so she took her exams without support, and so far reports are that she performed well, but the results are still being confirmed.

On December 15, 2022, Agnes arrived at Lions Hospital for surgery. The doctors decided it was best to do surgery on just one eye and for her to return in a few weeks to evaluate her progress and plan for the second eye.

She reported right away that her vision was dramatically improved. (See video below)

As she awaited the final results, we were faced with raising funds again for her school tuition. Brad sent out an email on Christmas Eve about her story. We had a donor give $500 the same day! We are excited to see what this incredible young woman can accomplish, but she’s not completely out of the woods.

She will return to the specialists in the beginning of the year 2023 to evaluate her progress and potentially prepare for a second surgery, but for now, the future looks so much brighter!

Below is a bio that Agnes wrote for us:

I come from Njoro Masai and my name is Agnes. I have a younger brother and the two of us live with our old grandmother. I have a condition known as ‘marfan syndrome’ which I have lived with since my childhood. With the help from Foothold International, I have been able to go to Lions Club hospital and will be undergoing surgery to help me see again. I have also done my final exam and I’m waiting to join high school next year but that will be possible if I get school fees which will enable me continue with my studies so as to achieve my dream of becoming an Optician. I aspire to help both the young and the old who have eye problems.

To help us empower more young women and families like Agnes, click the DONATE link below.

Fauzia had already been through so much in her young life. She and her two younger siblings lost both of their parents to HIV. Her Aunt Hannah (who is also the Chair Woman of the Namelok ladies group), took them all in as her own children.

Although Hannah supported Fauzia, she was also struggling with how this pregnancy was going to affect them financially. It was tough enough raising three additional children, and now she faced feeding another child along with the increased cost of Fauzia’s school fees ($500/year). Still, Hannah was most worried about Fauzia’s health and well being.

Hannah broke down when we talked to her last year about seeing her niece in such depression. She is a tough woman, but she also recognized her limits. She reached out to the Namelok ladies and Fauzia’s favorite teacher to come to visit and encourage Fauzia. Fauzia was quickly surrounded by the loving support and encouragement of a group of women who knew exactly what Fauzia was going through. They offered her encouragement and support.

Her Aunt Hannah promised her she would get to continue going to school, but honestly she did not know how she was going to pay for her high school fees. She reached out to our staff for support, so we at Foothold raised the $500/year to cover Fauzia’s high school fees.

Nahashon is well cared for by both his young mother, Fauzia and his Great Aunt Hannah with help from Fauzia’s youngest sister and the entire Namelok ladies group who give him more attention than he often wants. His mother, Fauzia attends a local day high school, so she is with her son whenever she is not in school.

When we visited the summer/fall of 2022, we found Hannah carrying Nahashon on her hip doing her daily chores, and when the ladies met Fauzia’s little sister carried him around the same way. We met Fauzia one day before school, and we witnessed her getting herself ready for school and feeding Nahashon.

Whenever you buy a bar of soap, you’re helping to support the livelihood of this family and many families in their community with similar stories. If you would like to purchase a bar or two of soap, you can click the link below. If you would like to support families like Nahashon’s click the donate button.