Making A Difference

At a very tender age, he had to take over the mandate of breadwinner for their household when he had no option but to leave school and work as a fisherman. This revealed to him the reality of so many other children living hand to mouth at the lake. He had a dream of living in a child oppression free island, where education and the basic survival needs for children could be met. After struggling to finish school, he dedicated most of his time trying to help the children at the lake. Tom started to organize children and the best he could afford for them was a play therapy. In small village field in Kamasengre Rusinga they could play football game with a traditionally made ball. In the year 2004, Tom initiated an education support with the support of Henry and Caroline Wijnia, the school was named Eddie Memorial School that he later surrendered to the government.

A school was now available but holistic transformation was not going to be achieved. Tom helped mobilize his friends and they formed a community based organization later and registered it as Victoria Friendly Montessori with the purpose of developing capacities of grass-root community along the Lake Victoria basin to mitigate against effects of poverty through sustainable community-led interventions. Now Victoria Friendly Montessori CBO existed

In 2011 he was introduced to Harrie Oostrom, a philanthropic Dutch donor who for more than 30 years has dedicated his time and resources supporting such causes in Kenya. He was deeply moved by Tom’s story and passion to deliver the children at the lake and so many others from the deplorable conditions. “When he offered to help co-create a school that would harbor these children and cater for all their needs, I was really happy. I knew children would no longer get paid 10 shillings to buy mandazi after a whole day of looking after omena and chasing away scavenging birds from the drying fish. What I hadn’t envisioned is this holistic transformation of my passion to make education accessible,” he concludes.