JULIANA SHIJENJE EDWARD

Juliana Shijenje Edward was born on January 1, 1949, in Nzakula, within the Nyayo Teazone area of Shitao. She was the firstborn child in a large family of nine siblings, a position that required her to set aside her own needs to help raise her younger brothers and sisters.

Growing up in a remote region where schools were unavailable at the time, Juliana never had the opportunity to step into a classroom or learn to read and write. She spent her entire childhood at home, assisting her parents with domestic chores and heavy manual labor to help the large household survive.

As she entered adulthood, she continued to perform small tasks around the house and nearby farms to support her parents. Her youth was defined by simple, exhausting manual work, as there were no opportunities for formal employment or education in her village, leaving her with no professional skills for the future.

Juliana eventually moved to Shivakhala after marrying her husband, a carpenter who worked hard to provide for their growing home. They were blessed with nine children, but life was incredibly difficult, and they endured the deep pain of losing three of those children over the years, leaving six surviving offspring.

To keep the family afloat, Juliana took on heavy manual labor by tilling other people's farms for small wages under the hot sun. Even with her husband’s carpentry work, providing daily meals for nine children was a constant struggle, and the family often slept in their three-roomed mud house without basic necessities or hope for a better tomorrow.

The situation turned into a long period of hardship when her husband passed away, leaving her as a widow in a house that was slowly falling apart. Her health rapidly declined as she developed painful arthritis, which eventually made it impossible for her to continue the farm work that had been her only source of food and survival.

Her surviving children have been unable to pull her out of this poverty, as most are unemployed or struggling with their own lives in Nairobi and Naivasha. While some have married and moved away, they face their own financial battles and cannot provide the consistent support their mother needs in her old age.

Juliana now depends entirely on her granddaughter, Anju Laura, who returned to Shivakhala to become her primary caregiver. Anju Laura had been living and married in Nairobi, but after a disagreement, her husband chased her away, forcing her to return to Kakamega with her one child and no means of income.

Today, the three of them—Juliana, Anju Laura, and the great-grandchild—live together in the small, fragile mud house, struggling to find a way to survive each day. With Juliana unable to move due to illness and Anju Laura having been displaced from her home in the city, the burden of providing for three dependents is an impossible task.

She was eventually identified by a village elder who saw the family’s extreme suffering and the state of Juliana’s health. The village elder introduced her to the Mama Ibado Charity, where she was officially registered for the food program on August 3, 2024.

Juliana now receives a comprehensive food basket containing rice, sugar, oil, porridge flour, maize flour, tea leaves, and salt.

"For a long time, we sat in this mud house in total darkness, not knowing where the next meal would come from, but since joining the program, I have found the strength to walk again, and my grandchildren finally have food to eat."

The regular supply of food and medicine has allowed Juliana to live with a level of dignity she had not known since becoming a widow. The burden of food insecurity has been lifted, allowing her to focus on her health without the constant, gnawing fear of an empty kitchen.

Juliana still needs help because she is a sickly widow living in a three-roomed mud house with three dependents who have no other source of income. Her advanced age and severe arthritis mean she can never return to the fields, making the continued support of donors the only lifeline for her and her family.