In September 2017, Diana, with help from Maryosa, will return to school.
Diana Nyalik is 22 and lives in Ruiru, Kenya. She is the first in a family of eight siblings and they all live in a one-bedroom apartment with their mother.
Her father is alive, but not with them. He left the family, and so her mother became the sole breadwinner. Currently, her mother works as a day laborer in a construction factory. She also sells fruit and snacks in a self-built store on the street.
Life has not always been easy for Diana and her family. Often she went to school without food, knowing that when she came home there would be nothing either. Sometimes the family slept on the street because they had no money to pay the rent on time.
Diana finished her high school two years ago. She paid her school fees from a scholarship fund and sometimes her father paid the rest. Although these were difficult times for her, she never gave up, and she graduated with a C-.
After that, she had no further education nor a job. During that time, she helped her mother sell fruit and snacks.
Her dream is to continue studying and get a job, so as to be there for her family. Because she is the oldest, she is a role model for her siblings. She wants to raise the bar for life for them by going to college.
In September 2017, Diana, with help from Maryosa, will return to school. She is eager to work towards a degree in ‘social community development’ that includes project management. She has chosen this direction because it is going to give her insight into how to interact with the community she lives in, and it will give her insight into how to create and manage projects that will help the community move forward. In addition, it will give her a chance for a stable job that can provide income for further education of her brothers and sisters.
Diana would like to pass on what she learns in her community and later set up her own organization.