ROSA Nyarostso MASHETI

Rosa is making Crotalaria brevidens (Mito) seeds that she plans to plant this season, clear evidence that she has hope for the future. Thanks to Mama Ibado, her hope of seeing another day has been restored after years of severe hardship.

She was born in 1942 as one of four children, having two brothers and one sister. Life at home was difficult from the start, as her father passed away while she was still young, leaving the family without a provider.

Rosa never went to school because there was no one to pay for her education after her father’s death. She spent her childhood and teenage years laboring in the fields to help her mother keep the family alive.

She later married into the Masheti family in Makaka and gave birth to twelve children. However, she has endured the deep pain of losing eight of her children, leaving her with only two sons and two daughters.

Her marriage was a constant struggle for survival as she and her husband worked as casual laborers for neighbors. They often worked from dawn until dusk just to get enough flour for a single meal, and many nights the family slept hungry when work was unavailable.

Her two surviving daughters moved away to Bukusu land after marriage and have not been seen or heard from in over two years. Her two sons remain at home but have no formal employment, relying only on occasional manual farm work that rarely brings in enough to buy food.

Before receiving help, Rosa lived in a state of extreme neglect where getting a cup of tea was a rare mercy from a neighbor. She suffered from painful ulcers and arthritis, conditions made worse by the fact that she often had nothing to eat for days.

We, the Mama Ibado field officers, met Rosa during our outreach to the Muslim community in Makaka when she was in a very frail state. She was registered into the program on April 1, 2023, and her daughter-in-law now helps her collect her monthly support from our offices in Amalemba.

"Before these officers found me, I lived in a dark cloud of hunger where I did not know if I would wake up the next day. Now, the heavy burden of searching for food has been lifted, and I can spend my time preparing my garden with hope."

Each month, Rosa receives a food basket containing maize flour, wheat flour, rice, sugar, milk, salt, and tea leaves. These supplies have stabilized her health and provided the nutritional foundation she needs to manage her chronic arthritis and ulcers.

She remains in urgent need of help because she is an elderly widow living in a small, two-roomed mud house with no source of income. Without this continued intervention, Rosa would return to a life of absolute hunger and physical pain that her body can no longer endure.