Roofing tiles and building blocks production teacher
Early Life in Mathare Valley
Born In 1959,she has a friendly demeanor very simple in nature, extremely hard working and always ready with solutions
She is a mother, a grandmother of 15 and great grandmother of 4, and this is her life story out of poverty.
Jecinta Wanjiku was born in present day Maranga county and migrated to Mathare slum in Nairobi at a very early age where her parent lived and traded in alcohol sale Muratina and Busaa (traditional illegal brews) She attended Mathare Primary school up-to Class 7 where she sat for her CPE certificate ,though she passed well ,she was unable to proceed to high school due to financial problems her mother had other 10 children to fend for.
Jecinta Wanjiku Married early any had gotten her fist born by 1979 and had continued with her family’s business .
The Breakthrough
Jecinata met Mama Ingrid Munro at St. Theresa Parish Eastleigh, in Nairobi, through the initiative of the late Father Arnold Grol. Mama Ingrid gave a talk on how to get out poverty and Mathare Valley. By then they had formed Humama, Heri,Upendo,Machuma and Makao women groups. she belonged to Heri women group. Mama Ingrid took ten of them for training at Intermediate technology workshop in Karen for production of roofing tiles and building blocks.
When they came back now professionals in the production of roofing tiles and building blocks they were engaged to produce for Komorock housing estate in Nairobi.
In 1988 Jecinta was noted for her hard work and was among the chosen to travel to Birmingham In the United Kingdom for further training in the production of roofing tiles and building blocks and machine handling, sponsored by African Housing Fund where Mama Ingrid was the maninging director
When she came back, they started training other women groups in Nairobi Kenya how to manufacture roofing tiles and building blocks for sale to earn a living .
International Consultant.
In 1990 Jecinta Moved to Uganda, to train mostly women groups on how to produce roofing tiles and building blocks, based in Kasese, a town north of Lake George in the Western Region of Uganda.
In 1996 she participated in Rwanda rebuilding the country, after the mayhem and chaos that had engulfed it, in training again, mostly women groups in roofing tiles manufacture together with her colleagues Agnes and Joseph Kamande.
She came back home to Nairobi and continued with her expertise and in 2002 again she was recruited as the team lead and head of production for roofing tiles and building blocks for Kaputei New Town in Kisaju Kajiado County, where she was supervising over 200 people in their production.
Its Possible
Jecinta has been a founding member of Jamii Bora Trust , Yawezekana Sacco , Yawezekana Housing Co-op Society and a proud owner of a two bed roomed house in Kaputei New Town, in Kisaju Kajiado County.
Through her work she was able to climb out of the horrible living conditions in Mathare Valley and most importantly educate her children who are now productive members of society.
Jecinta at 64 years of age is still very much active in her profession and is the team lead at production of roofing tiles and building blocks for New Town Kaputei Phase 2, where they intend to construct 1200 low cost housing units starting December,2022, a Jamii Bora Trust Project.
Gratitude
Jamii Bora Trust and its affiliates just provided Jecinta with a ladder, she took the opportunity to climb out of poverty together with her family using her talent and hard work, she is a peer among her friends she commands respect due to her age ,work experience and gently nature at work, its very hard to know that she is the boss, until she switches to fluent english when demonstrating to visitors at the workshop the process of tiles and blocks production.
She is very much grateful to Mama Ingrid Munro and Jamii Bora Trust for giving her the opportunity.
