Young woman’s dream of being computer literate finally comes true

By Samuel Gitonga Makanya

When Patience Mueni cleared high school last year, she had dreams of joining a good college and furthering her studies. But since her parents could not afford to take her to college, this remained just a dream for the 21 year old; she had to stay at home and help out with the daily chores, something she was not happy about as she wanted to do something constructive with her time.

All through her high school education, Ms. Mueni always yearned to gain computer skills and join the world of computer literates but her former high school did not offer computer studies. She however promised herself that she would pursue computer training after high school, but her parents could not raise the training charges required by training institutions based in Mutomo town.

Thus when her friends told her that they had joined a free ICT training opportunity at Mutomo Maarifa Centre, Mueni could not wait to be among the beneficiaries.

“I immediately enrolled. I would walk from home to attend the morning training sessions and go back home to assist with the daily chores,” says Patience who aspires to be a nurse in future. She adds that she always made time to go through her notes every evening.

At the end of the training session, Ms. Mueni was awarded with a certificate of participation listing the five computer packages that she had been trained on. For her, this will go a long way in complimenting her future studies as she understands that in today’s higher education learning environment, one has to be computer literate.

The certificate also opened an employment opportunity for her as well. “A friend heard of a job opportunity at Daro Enterprises in Mutomo town and recommended me for the job,” says a happy Mueni. She adds that her job description entails typesetting and printing documents for clients.

Patience attributes her new job to Mutomo Maarifa Centre and applauds them for a job well done.

“Am happy that I have gotten an opportunity to tell a success story and I sincerely thank ALIN for equipping the Mutomo community with ICT skills. I wish people take this rare opportunity to improve their livelihoods,” concludes Patience.