KAVOLE EZINA ADOVOLWA

Kavole Ezina Adovolwa was born in 1948 in Idakho, Ikolomani. She was the third child in a family of seven siblings.

She started her education at a local school but was only able to reach class three. Her father lacked the financial strength to keep her in school, forcing her to abandon her books to help the family find their next meal.

After leaving school, she stayed at her parents' home, spending her youth tilling the soil and performing heavy manual labor in the fields. She worked alongside her mother, assisting with various domestic chores to ensure the household remained afloat.

Kavole eventually married and moved to Rosterman, where she and her husband were blessed with seven children. To provide for them, she became a small-scale trader, ripening bananas and selling them in town.

Her husband worked in a junior position at the PC’s office, and together they struggled to give their children an education, though none were able to go far due to limited funds. The family faced a difficult turning point in 2016 when her husband passed away, leaving Kavole to face the world as a widow.

Following his death, the deep stress and aging process took a toll on her health, causing her to lose her hearing almost entirely. She now lives in a fragile home near the Kakamega dumping site, where she depends on her son, Francis Masheti, to communicate by shouting loudly for her to understand even a single word.

Her living conditions are dire, as the family relies on water from a nearby stream that is often contaminated by runoff from the dumping site and local gold mining activities. This forces her to live in constant fear of waterborne diseases, as she has no money to buy clean water or pay for medical treatment.

Her adult children are all "hustlers" who rely on inconsistent manual labor, meaning there are many days they return home empty-handed. Before assistance arrived, Kavole would often sit in silence and hunger, as her strength to carry bananas to town had completely vanished.

Her situation was eventually brought to the attention of the local chief, who recognized her suffering and introduced her to the Mama Ibado Charity. After an assessment of her health and the polluted environment she lives in, she was enrolled in the seniors' program on April 24, 2024.

Kavole now receives monthly rations of rice, maize flour, sugar, cooking oil, milk, tea leaves, and salt. These supplies ensure that even when her son fails to find a casual job in town, there is still something in the kitchen to sustain her and the nine dependents in her care.

"In the past, we lived in a cycle of silence and starvation, but today I have the peace of knowing that my kitchen is never empty even when my body is weak."

The provision of food has significantly improved her physical well-being and removed the crushing burden of food insecurity from her son’s shoulders. He can now use the little he earns on other pressing needs, knowing his mother has already been provided for by the charity.

Kavole still needs help because her severe hearing loss and advanced age prevent her from earning any income. Living near a dumping site with contaminated water sources and having nine dependents make the charity’s support her only protection against disease and total collapse.