Leadership begins at home…

Our Founder’s Story

Alice Charity Awinja

Growing up in a village in the 20th century, life was simple and filled with love and concern for each other. Staying with my grandparents was fun, and we were graced with a lot of opportunities to learn about my ancestors and how to live with people. I always looked forward to getting back home from school to have early dinner (brown ugali with meat or eggs) with my grandpa and helping my grandma with my favourite chore of grinding millet on the grinding stone. We would then sit by the fire place to listen to grandpa’s stories that always ended with an emphasis of the moral of the story.

Learning our mother tongue became my favourite lesson in school because I got to narrate grandpa’s stories to the entire class. That is how I became fluent in speaking and reading my mother tongue (Luhya - Kinyore dialect). I left the village to further my studies, and every time I would come back for holidays, I realized there were very few peers (if any at all) with which to connect. Some were privileged enough to pursue better opportunities, while others had to engage in business (ie: riding motorbikes, selling groceries, etc.) or look for jobs (ie: house girl/boy, farming jobs, and other casual construction jobs) to support their parents and siblings. Others became dependent on the charity of well-wishers.  Sadly, others were raising their own families because they did not have a chance to further their studies despite living in a village that hosts a university and a polytechnic.

The 21st century has come in with a lot of westernization that has eroded the foundations set by our forefathers. There are so many school dropout cases by both male and female students, early marriages, teen pregnancies, abortion and drug abuse cases that were very rare in the former years. The social structure is fragile since parents are busy fending for their families and spending less or no time at all with their children whenever they are home from school. Children have been left at the mercy of their peers and social media to solve their issues, which most of the time steer them in the wrong direction. The government as well has put more emphasis on classroom-based education and less efforts on social and technological skills development of students. There are no social spaces or investment in infrastructure in my community to engage the children and young adults during holidays such that they have all the time to themselves without guidance or support. 

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has further exposed the gaps in education and society that need to be urgently addressed for the wellbeing of future generations. For these reasons, we founded Amazing Grace Center, with the commitment to invest in infrastructure that will provide a platform for adolescents and young adults to be guided, empowered and nurtured to make informed decisions and choices as they transition into adulthood.

I thank you for visiting our website and for your interest in learning more about our organization. We can achieve much together…will you join us?

— Alice Charity Awinja, Founder & Director