Girl forced to crush stones as hopes for better education fade

Many will agree that crushing stones into ballast is no girl’s job. But this is what 16-year-old Joyce Wangari has to do to keep her going.

The sharp rocks are unforgiving on her gentle hands but she says it is the only means to help her single mother.

Wangari sat the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education exams in 2010 and scored 316 marks out of a possible 500 but her mother could not raise the Sh26,000 fees to enable her to join secondary school.

Her admission letter to Ewaso Girls' High School lies in the house.

A family friend took her to Nakuru last year after promising to enrol her in a secondary school only to be withdrawn from the institution two months later due to a strike.

And a year later, she is still hopeful that one day she will get a sponsor to pay for her education despite a false start.

She has gone through tough times in her quest for education.

For instance, she spent six months at an orphanage in Nakuru as she waited for ‘sponsor’ to pay for her school fees.

“I stayed at the orphanage helping out with chores as I waited for a sponsor,” she told the Nation last week.

She continued: “My mother painstakingly came for me as the thought of staying in an orphanage while she was still alive saddened her.”

For now, she has taken up a casual job with her mother at a construction site in Rongai to make ends meet.

Mother and daughter crush stones into ballast every day.

Scorching sun

Proceeds from the sale of the ballast are negligible compared to the energy and fatigue the pair has to contend with under the scorching sun.

“We are paid Sh50 per wheelbarrow which takes half a day to fill,” Ms Margaret Wambui, her mother, told the Nation at Ole Kasasi area in Ongata Rongai.

On a good day, the two manage to fill three wheelbarrows but the amount is hardly enough to support the other five children who are still in school.

“Every time I pause and see her crushing stones next to me it reminds me that she should be in secondary school but I have no money,” Ms Wambui says.

The thudding sounds made by the sledge hammers is not only a measure of their sweat but also a nagging reminder of their poverty.

“I have failed my daughter,” Wangari’s mother remarks.

The third born in a family of six, Wangari says that although acquiring a secondary school education seems like a mirage for now, she is optimistic that she will be a successful judge one day.

“My desire is to see the law that protects children upheld and sentence those that encourage child labour of any form,” she says, adding that even though she was not mistreated, she did not like her stay at the orphanage.

However, she is quick to clarify that she has voluntarily chosen to do the hard labour to help her single mother feed the family.

The two work eight hours a day, six days a week with a one-hour lunch break.

“When there is no food we sleep under the shade then resume work at 2pm,” Ms Wambui explains.

Wangari acknowledges the job has its risks, such as stone chips flying into the eyes, scratches on hands and feet and sometimes an injured finger.

But she chooses to hold on until a sponsor makes her dream to continue with school comes to her rescue.