Reaching for Your Dreams By Mary Thomas Tarimo

Christina and her 8 year old grandson live together in a 5x3m dilapidated mud and wattle house. Living in this kind of house presents multiple challenges and risks. The home lacks windows and thus is poorly ventilated posing a risk to their health. In rainy season, rain often enters the house because of the holes in the roof and walls. It has become a challenge for her grandson to stay in the same room with his grandmother which provides no privacy. Because the home is made only of mud and wattle, it poses a serious security risk since it is easy to break in.

Despite all this, Christina did not seem to see the risks to her life or believe she had the ability to do anything about it. I sat down with Christina during our goal setting meeting, showed her the seriousness of the risk and convinced her she had the ability to do something about it.

We set a goal for her to construct a new, bigger, semi-permanent house. During our discussions, I made her realise the available resources around here such as mud for use in brick laying.

Using these resources, her savings and causal labor she started construction of the new house in the month of September she has been able to construct a new three roomed semi-permanent up to ring beam level. She hopes to finish the house this year. Congratulations Christina!

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