Peter’s Story

My name is Peter Bamford Ochieng. I was born in 1968 in Kakamega County, Khwisero subcounty. I was raised up by my grandma. I went through school, primary education at Eshirali primary school. After primary I was about to miss high school due to lack of money. Fortunately I got sponsored by Mr Hector from US., Mr Hector was running a high school in Kakamega County and was sponsoring bright poor students. So Hector got me a sponsor, Miss Maureen Polard from Canada. When I met Miss Polard in 1985, she told me words that I hold dearly. I quote, "I'm helping you so that you will help many".

I went through education from form 1 to form 6, I missed one point to go to university. I finally came to Mombasa and became a primary teacher. After teaching for some years I discovered that many children in the village where I was staying were not going to school. It really touched me and some children were always asking me to teach them. I decided to tuition them. Little did I know how children were thirsty for education. I started with only one child but in a month I was overwhelmed with number of children coming to me to learn. It's here when I remembered what my sponsor told me. I had a empty room without a good floor in the house I had rented and turned it into a classroom. So children increased in number up 30, the poor parents were very happy with what I was doing with their children.

Our school has grown in population, we have 100 kids. Many parents want to bring more children but because our premises can't accommodate them we don't admit them.

My dream is to buy land and put up a modern school which can accommodate about 300 children. Our women center is serving 40 women who are empowered with skills in order to be economically productive.

I'm married to Salome Nanzala, I've 4 children, 3 beautiful daughters and one son. Namely Polard Ayuma (25), Ruth Abusaki (16), Caleb Ochieng (14) and Florence Mukoma (11).