23 years ago I spent Christmas in Kenya, touring with an amazing local choir and visiting various projects. The highpoint was probably the morning spent with a group of Maasai. The lowpoint was Kuwinda, a shanty town in Nairobi where hundreds of people shared one tap. There was an air of hopelessness and helplessness which I've never forgotten.So I was particularly inspired today to hear of Sammy Gitau's story. Sammy lived in the most notorious shanty town in Nairobi. When he was 13 his father was murdered and he became the family's breadwinner, resorting to dealing drugs and battling addiction. Narrowly escaping death following a drug-induced coma, Sammy decided to turn his life around and help stop other children making the same mistakes that he did. He went on to found a community resource centre that has helped over 20,000 slum children! But the story doesn't end there. For 10 years Sammy had held on to a Manchester University prospectus that he had once found in a rubbish bin. His dream was to study there one day but he had only had a basic primary education and didn't know the first thing about applying. Well, to cut a long story short, today - at Manchester University's graduation ceremony - he was presented with an MSc in Management and Implementation of Development Projects. Wonderful!!
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