HOPE & PERSEVERANCE - A true story...

FANTASTIC STORY OF HOPE AND PERSEVERANCE. EACDT GIVING YOUNG PEOPLE THE CHARACTER TOOLS TO GIVE THEMSELVES A CHANCE TO SUCCEED IN LIFE.

Here's an encouraging story for you from David Waters, the Director of the East Africa Character Development Trust (EACDT), which is the charity we support through our 'Luo Collection'...

So today during break time I was moving around Kangemi slums (slums in Nairobi) looking for something to eat when I ran into one James Marwa who used to be part of the program from when we started the EACDT up until 2 years ago when he cleared class 8 at Kangemi primary school.

As coaches Paul and Sarah can attest, this boy was always dirty and unkempt, academically he was very poor, he would always be in last position in class, the teachers never really liked him but we never gave up on him. As a result of his circumstances he became a bully but we still invited him for holiday camps at Nairobi school and Nairobi club, cricket-wise he wasn't that good but showed some sense of leadership so we mainly gave him responsibilities of organising the kits and kids.

Anyway, after he got done with primary school (failing of course) he could not go to high school and started hanging around Kangemi and doing odd jobs just to make a living, he would sell tomatoes, onions, eggs and make little money, sometimes he would get arrested by city council askaris and have all his material confiscated. At one point he says, he used to sleep in the market but would always see us (the coaches) around Kangemi and would always remember what we taught him, more particularly perseverance and passion so he never gave up, and he got someone to help him get some paperwork together and went to look for a good conduct certificate and joined the matatu sacco as a conductor earning about 1000 bob a day and is living a much better life now.

What he said that really got me was he said in his own words that - "the only reason he is where he is today and not dead or a thief somewhere is because he never gave up and always had hope and he credits all this to the character education he got from us. He finished telling this by thanking me and said I should pass his gratitude to Coaches Paul and Sarah as well.

Ladies and gentlemen this is not just a story, this is a real product and a real change which our program is DIRECTLY involved, you should be very proud of yourselves people, you're doing a good job!

See below for a picture of James Marwa:

-----------------------------------------------------------

May we all just take a moment and appreciate how lucky so many of us have been in life and realise that it doesn't take much to change someone else's life for the better.

Big congrats to the team at the EACDT!

We are so humbled and proud to be a part of such an incredible cause changing lives in Kenya for the better.

We look forward to working with this amazing charity for years to come and hearing many more of these encouraging stories!