Charity Muthoni Gakuta
2020
Charity started her second year on January 2020 she is looking forward to completing her Diploma Course at the end of the year 2020. This will give her more knowledge and exposure, a promotion at her place of work, and new opportunities. It will also equip her for her long term goal of opening her own business which would give her financial freedom, time, and freedom to serve her community more.
Charity is a leader in her community, organizing and participating in various volunteer activities. Currently due to COVID-19, Charity has stepped up and put aside her busy schedule to come up with measures to assist other organizations to try to curb further infection by volunteering to do Community Counselor Sensitization with the C19 Response Team. Her work is to disseminate important information to the community through small text messages, whatsapp images, emails, and all social media platforms avoiding contact as much as possible. As cases of depression and panic are expected to increase and while the government is setting measures and mechanisms for managing the crisis they need volunteers to take psychosocial support closer to the people linking people with the needed assistance.
With this crisis many business are already closed and many have lost their jobs, which has caused many to go without the basic needs like food and sanitizers. As a leader and a pastor in her community, Charity has been receiving news of people sleeping without food which has increased the devastation for those suffering from depression and panic. She has always realized that being a leader does not mean she solves the problem alone and thus she has embarked on mobilizing her friends locally and internationally to come to the aid with food and sanitary items. They have responded with passion and currently have been able to make donations of foodstuffs and sanitizers to 25 families in her community. She is continuing to mobilize food staff for other 30 desperate families.
Charity has been studying Business Management, and has gained a lot of knowledge on how to manage businesses, savings, and mitigating business risks. In return she has been disseminating this information and empowering people (especially women and teenage mums) on how to save to start and manage small home based businesses. She plans to continue with this empowerment throughout the year.
She has also been mentoring the teens and youth during the school holidays and every Sunday Morning she mentors young footballers where they share breakfast before they go for football games. This has been very fruitful, many of them have reformed from bad companies and drugs and they are now focused on education, their talents, and also have become ambassadors of change. Charity has also been doing Women Mentorship meetings once a month in her church. These mentorship meetings are meant to help women realize their purpose as a woman, as a wife, as a mother, and also in God’s service and community. This has been very fruitful and many women are boldly fulfilling their purpose without intimidation.
Additionally, Charity has started Women Empowerment meetings which are to be done thrice a year where she mobilizes women with different skills (e.g. baking, cooking, mart making, soap making, jewelry etc.) to come and teach other women in the community. This will help them to start their home based businesses and thus lead to eradicating poverty and bringing financial freedom.
Below is a quote in this season from Martin Luther and Charity believes that every change that is happening in her life through college education will be for betterment of my community
“Our goal is to create a beloved community,” said Dr. King, “and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
Adapted from Charity’s Statement of Purpose in her 2020 Application