Staff stories: Stephen Ojungo Onyang, Manager

My name is Stephen Ojungo Onyang. Born in 1968 in Kisumu district, Nyanga Province. Went to Nyatigo Primary School, where I did by KCPE and then joined Adwala High School where I did my Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) in 1989. In 1992-1994 I joined the Kisumu Polytechnic, where I did a Diploma in Labour Studies and Management.

Right now I am working here at Double Joy Children's Farm since 26 April 2004. At first I was employed as a book-keeper until 29 September 2004, when I was promoted to become the Acting Manager of this institution. On 29 March 2005, I was confirmed as the full manager after completing the six-months probationary period.

Right now, I am the Manager here and my work entails planning, organising, directing, staffing, co-ordinating and even budgeting for the smooth running of this institution. As a trained manager, I find my job very enjoyable and whenever I meet challenges in the field during my work, I feel very good because without challenges life is not complete.

In my family, we were born seven children - and four have already died. Two of the dead died young but two died leaving their children behind. It is unfortunate that when the two brothers died, their wives also died soon after, leaving me as the only bread winner for their children far from my own personal household consisting of one wife and five children. Both my parents are still alive. In total, I am the sole bread winner for a family of ten children, my wife, both parents who are very old. The community where I come from is full of hardworking people but the unpredictable weather always lets them down. Whenever they plant crops in their small farms, bad weather makes it impossible to get meaningful harvest. This therefore exposes my community to constant lack of enough food. Water is a persistent problem since we depend on seasonal river waters and during long dry seasons, we have to walk very long distances to get water. The road network in my community is totally pathetic. From the main tarmac road, we walk for over one and a half hours to get home, and whenever somebody falls sick, reaching the nearest health facility which is 5km away is ever a nightmare. We live in grass-thatched houses and only a few people are able to build iron roofed houses with mud walls. Many people of my community sleep on mats because affording a bed and mattress is a far off dream.

My community has been seriously affected by the HIV/Aids scourge. Many children have been left orphans under the care of very old grandparents who cannot even afford to buy flour for making porridge. It is a very pathetic situation indeed, since some homes have been closed and the orphans taken away to other relatives homes and hence provision of the basic requirements for life to the orphans is impossible. All these problems are even worsened by the unemployment rate in our country. We, who are lucky to be employed, find it very difficult to give enough of anything to all those who depend on us directly and indirectly.

Mr Onyang S.O.
Manager.