Woman's Representative: Makueni County Kenya, EA
Donation protected
Hello everyone!
Thanks, for getting involved and helping with this cause! Below the pictures, you will find a message from my mom, Jane Kitundu, who is running for a political position in her native country of Kenya, East Africa. Click on the underlined text to hear more about specific projects mentioned!
Thank You!
Hello,
My name is Jane Kitundu, and I am running for the Woman's Representative seat in Makueni County in Kenya, East Africa. I've always had a passion for bringing back change to the area I grew up in! I grew up as the eldest of 7 girls in Kenya's densely poverty-stricken rural area. Strict parents raised me, my mom, a social worker, my dad, and a neurological medical doctor. They always stressed the importance of education as a way out for all of us! This was was my route over 40 years ago when I left Kenya and came to the US via Canada. I worked for over 35 years as a Registered Nurse (BSN) in numerous hospitals across the United States while raising my 3 kids, before retiring and deciding to return back to Kenya to help my former community!
I have seen firsthand that a good, quality education is vital and should be a fundamental right for all kids and teens growing up in any country! It's a way to end the cycle of poverty that flows from one generation to another and to empower the young people to be an agent of change in their households or communities! This is one pillar that I stand for and will advocate for in my area when elected.
A project that I would like to highlight that was brought to fruition is the Mutanu High School. With the help of people like you, money was raised to help buy school lockers and build an additional classroom in the newly built school for students in the poor rural area of Kibwezi County located 20 km west of the Nairobi-Mombasa highway in Kenya. The school was built in response to students having to walk 8 kms (nearly 5 miles) on a dangerous trek past wildlife areas early in the morning to just get to to their former school! With Mutanu built, their journey was shorter and students were provided a safe place to learn!
In addition to providing a safer learning environment, another goal is to bring more opportunities to young people who finish high school by creating a way forward for them to apply to college scholarships and other opportunities outside of Kenya within the US, Canada, Australia, or Europe! One great example is a program that is in the US and is for girls in high school called TechGirls https://techgirlsglobal.org/. This program allows girls from outside countries including Kenya, to come to the US for a month and partner with a team of innovative tech professionals from a University and to learn tech & coding skills. According to their site, this opportunity "...helps to improve the participants’ ability to enter tech fields and encourages them to pursue higher education in fields where women are underrepresented" (TechGirls). By showcasing and improving access to abroad opportunities like these, our young people will be able to gain knowledge, skills, and even better financial opportunities for themselves and their families upon returning back home to Kenya!
However, it is NOT just about building more schools in communities where needed! My goal is to reform the education system as it is. Currently education in Kenya for K-8 is FREE, aside from a couple items including uniforms and lunches. However, because the government does NOT pay the salaries for all the teachers in every school, they rely on the parents to be able to make up the difference when they send their child daily. Although parents know this, it is an impossible task to achieve for many who live well below the poverty line, and who struggle daily just to meet their basic needs! In the end, children get kicked out of school until a fee is paid for them to return!I plan to end this horrible ongoing cycle and charge those at the top to STEP UP and take care of schools and teachers the way they should be, by paying teacher salaries and expenses and not relying on families to do so!
When elected as Women's Rep, I plan to make a difference in the lives of those most harmed the most by this system of injustice, the women and children in my county! As mentioned, many families struggle to meet their daily basic needs of food and clean water. Women and children waste countless hours and energy walking to creeks, rocks, and dirty water holes just to obtain a gallon of water for cooking, cleaning, or bathing! The end product is often not sanitary and the countless time and energy that women and children spend going to fetch water is unfathomable and has to be changed! My goal is to work with a team to help build boreholes, large deep holes dug underground, that can reach fresh clean water. These boreholes are costly but necessary to help alleviate the burden women and children face daily with this tiresome task!
One outcome that I want to make happen is to see the government provide small loans to women to start or build their own business so that they can become EMPOWERED to make their own decisions and provide more for their families! Makueni is a rural farming community and many families grow crops to make ends meet. Often, women sell local produce from their farms by the wayside or near local markets in town. Sadly, they often barely make enough money for their families to survive. These women need more stability and income. Too often the banks in Kenya make it difficult to obtain a loan for a business or property. I want to improve this process by making sure the government has better supports in place for women who have their own businesses by providing tax breaks, or other financial opportunities that are specifically set aside for women to obtain these much needed "starter funds!" By empowering the woman, you change the whole household and the outcome for her children for years to come!
In addition to small business loans for women, better health care is needed for this marginalized group as well! Too often women are treated poorly in hospitals and clinics if they do not have money. There MUST be access to FREE pre-natal vitamins and health care to better support women and their unborn children.
It's time for the Kenyan government to STEP-UP and when elected as Woman's Representative, I plan to bring these issues to the forefront with members of parliament in an effort to bring about REAL change that's needed in our community! Too often those in charge ignore people that don't directly affect their pocketbooks in a positive way! My goal is NOT to help the local community for fame, recognition or for a financial gain, but to bring about CHANGE to a cycle that needs to be broken!
We can do this by starting FRESH, and thinking outside the box! With your donations, you can help me campaign and obtain my party Nomination to get onto the ballot! From there it will be up to the PEOPLE of the community to speak OUT and decide if they're ready for change! It's time to BREAK FREE from the same old politics, led by men, and elect a woman leader who plans to do just that!
Thank you for your support!
Honorable Jane W. Kitundu
For those in Kenya who would like to contribute via MPesa please use #: 0798966547
For those who would like to give via Cash App please use: $Queenbula
Thanks, for getting involved and helping with this cause! Below the pictures, you will find a message from my mom, Jane Kitundu, who is running for a political position in her native country of Kenya, East Africa. Click on the underlined text to hear more about specific projects mentioned!
Thank You!
Hello,
My name is Jane Kitundu, and I am running for the Woman's Representative seat in Makueni County in Kenya, East Africa. I've always had a passion for bringing back change to the area I grew up in! I grew up as the eldest of 7 girls in Kenya's densely poverty-stricken rural area. Strict parents raised me, my mom, a social worker, my dad, and a neurological medical doctor. They always stressed the importance of education as a way out for all of us! This was was my route over 40 years ago when I left Kenya and came to the US via Canada. I worked for over 35 years as a Registered Nurse (BSN) in numerous hospitals across the United States while raising my 3 kids, before retiring and deciding to return back to Kenya to help my former community!
I have seen firsthand that a good, quality education is vital and should be a fundamental right for all kids and teens growing up in any country! It's a way to end the cycle of poverty that flows from one generation to another and to empower the young people to be an agent of change in their households or communities! This is one pillar that I stand for and will advocate for in my area when elected.
A project that I would like to highlight that was brought to fruition is the Mutanu High School. With the help of people like you, money was raised to help buy school lockers and build an additional classroom in the newly built school for students in the poor rural area of Kibwezi County located 20 km west of the Nairobi-Mombasa highway in Kenya. The school was built in response to students having to walk 8 kms (nearly 5 miles) on a dangerous trek past wildlife areas early in the morning to just get to to their former school! With Mutanu built, their journey was shorter and students were provided a safe place to learn!
In addition to providing a safer learning environment, another goal is to bring more opportunities to young people who finish high school by creating a way forward for them to apply to college scholarships and other opportunities outside of Kenya within the US, Canada, Australia, or Europe! One great example is a program that is in the US and is for girls in high school called TechGirls https://techgirlsglobal.org/. This program allows girls from outside countries including Kenya, to come to the US for a month and partner with a team of innovative tech professionals from a University and to learn tech & coding skills. According to their site, this opportunity "...helps to improve the participants’ ability to enter tech fields and encourages them to pursue higher education in fields where women are underrepresented" (TechGirls). By showcasing and improving access to abroad opportunities like these, our young people will be able to gain knowledge, skills, and even better financial opportunities for themselves and their families upon returning back home to Kenya!
However, it is NOT just about building more schools in communities where needed! My goal is to reform the education system as it is. Currently education in Kenya for K-8 is FREE, aside from a couple items including uniforms and lunches. However, because the government does NOT pay the salaries for all the teachers in every school, they rely on the parents to be able to make up the difference when they send their child daily. Although parents know this, it is an impossible task to achieve for many who live well below the poverty line, and who struggle daily just to meet their basic needs! In the end, children get kicked out of school until a fee is paid for them to return!I plan to end this horrible ongoing cycle and charge those at the top to STEP UP and take care of schools and teachers the way they should be, by paying teacher salaries and expenses and not relying on families to do so!
When elected as Women's Rep, I plan to make a difference in the lives of those most harmed the most by this system of injustice, the women and children in my county! As mentioned, many families struggle to meet their daily basic needs of food and clean water. Women and children waste countless hours and energy walking to creeks, rocks, and dirty water holes just to obtain a gallon of water for cooking, cleaning, or bathing! The end product is often not sanitary and the countless time and energy that women and children spend going to fetch water is unfathomable and has to be changed! My goal is to work with a team to help build boreholes, large deep holes dug underground, that can reach fresh clean water. These boreholes are costly but necessary to help alleviate the burden women and children face daily with this tiresome task!
One outcome that I want to make happen is to see the government provide small loans to women to start or build their own business so that they can become EMPOWERED to make their own decisions and provide more for their families! Makueni is a rural farming community and many families grow crops to make ends meet. Often, women sell local produce from their farms by the wayside or near local markets in town. Sadly, they often barely make enough money for their families to survive. These women need more stability and income. Too often the banks in Kenya make it difficult to obtain a loan for a business or property. I want to improve this process by making sure the government has better supports in place for women who have their own businesses by providing tax breaks, or other financial opportunities that are specifically set aside for women to obtain these much needed "starter funds!" By empowering the woman, you change the whole household and the outcome for her children for years to come!
In addition to small business loans for women, better health care is needed for this marginalized group as well! Too often women are treated poorly in hospitals and clinics if they do not have money. There MUST be access to FREE pre-natal vitamins and health care to better support women and their unborn children.
It's time for the Kenyan government to STEP-UP and when elected as Woman's Representative, I plan to bring these issues to the forefront with members of parliament in an effort to bring about REAL change that's needed in our community! Too often those in charge ignore people that don't directly affect their pocketbooks in a positive way! My goal is NOT to help the local community for fame, recognition or for a financial gain, but to bring about CHANGE to a cycle that needs to be broken!
We can do this by starting FRESH, and thinking outside the box! With your donations, you can help me campaign and obtain my party Nomination to get onto the ballot! From there it will be up to the PEOPLE of the community to speak OUT and decide if they're ready for change! It's time to BREAK FREE from the same old politics, led by men, and elect a woman leader who plans to do just that!
Thank you for your support!
Honorable Jane W. Kitundu
For those in Kenya who would like to contribute via MPesa please use #: 0798966547
For those who would like to give via Cash App please use: $Queenbula
Organizer
Julianna Mululu
Organizer
Hayward, CA