By Ján Michalko
(Vedis’ story was part of the 2020 series on alumni association leaders in Kenya prepared by inHive in collaboration with Future First Kenya to commemorate the start of Term 3 of the school year, which was cancelled due to the COVID -19 pandemic)
Vedis messages me that he is running late for our WhatsApp call. Nairobi traffic. That’s all he has to say. He is traveling back home from work at a warehouse, which stores medical supplies and pharmaceuticals. I imagine there is no shortage of work for him as COVID-19 spreads across Kenya and supplies need to make their way to hospitals, pharmacies and medical centres.
The story of how Vedis got this job, that he shares with me when we manage to connect later on, proves to me that who you know matters and that people we meet can shape the course of our lives years later.
As is often the case, it was through connections and recommendations that he learnt about the opportunity that got him through a series of jobs and into his current role. He tells me of a former classmate who recruited him after he moved back to Nairobi from his rural home.
“We were in the same primary school – 19 years ago! But we were still in touch. We work in the same company now, but back then, she asked me what I studied, and when I said that I studied pharmacy, she told me, why don’t you come work with us, in my company!”
Networking is one of the benefits that Vedis recognizes come with alumni associations. That is why he has taken an active role in building the association for St. George’s Sikri Mixed Secondary School.
Our light shines: living by the school motto after graduating
The Alumni network at St. George’s Sikri has been running informally for several years now. Its leaders, including Vedis are working hard on having it registered and gathering new members. There are now more than 200 of them and once officially registered, the association is bound to become even bigger, considering that when Vedis first started to be involved more than 5 years ago, there were only handful of people who came with him to a meeting with the principal back at the school.
Since the early days, the meetings changed a bit and are now only online, as COVID is preventing the Old Boys and Old Girls from getting together in person. While, WhatsApp has always been an important communication tool for the association, having meeting online is a challenge for many alumni.
The pandemic is also forcing the association to rethink its activities plan. Vedis tells me that they had to cancel their plan to support the girl students with sanitary pads. Period poverty – the inability to pay for sanitary products – affects thousands of young women across Kenya and prevents them from going to schools.
The alumni can therefore make a big difference for the students and Vedis hopes to continue doing so, including by fundraising for a library or a laboratory that are very much needed. For some, however, it is hard to see what they can do and that they too have something to offer.
As Vedis says, especially the younger alumni are struggling themselves – looking for jobs and setting up their families and so are reluctant to join, feeling that money is tight.
Vedis himself feels the responsibility as a young father. He has a daughter he needs to take care of – dresses to buy and food to put on the table is the order of the day for him, being a family man, as he puts it. And so, while he is very careful about his job and career plans, he continues to be involved and tries to give back, and to live by the school motto.
Someone to navigate through turbulent times
The Old Boys and Girls of St George’s Sikri also work as mentors and sources of inspiration to the current students, which is especially appealing to Vedis, who used to teach after finishing high school and before embarking on his college degree in pharmacy.
It is clear that Vedis has jumped through a lot of hoops and faced many challenges to get where he is now and so he appreciates how much older mentors are needed for young people. When he was growing up, he and his family struggled, which affected his academic performance and future career plans.
“When people hear my story, some people get touched, others say, you went through all that and you’re still standing? Others get encouraged, because people go through a lot.”
Vedis started his primary schooling in Nairobi, which he very much enjoyed, but due to various challenges found himself moving to rural areas in Homa Bay. Now, he is able to talk to me about it with a smile and laugh in his voice, but reflecting back on the life in rural areas, his move back to Nairobi years later shows life in a rural community is not easy.
“It was very difficult for me to adjust to life here. Things in the town you can get easily. Some things are easily accessible like transportation, communications and other social amenities, but back at home things are different and you have to work hard to get them”
With the help of others, whom he kindly calls good Samaritans, he got scholarships and the necessary support to finish his studies. He became the beacon of hope for his family as the first one to go to college, which meant however huge responsibility to support others.
Despite his success, it was not his dream path. He wanted to be a pilot, but because he did not have the right subjects, he could not pursue aviation studies.
Due to the stresses from his circumstances, he dropped the subjects requiring a lot of hard work and concentration and as he starts telling me, ‘If I’ve had had that mentorship and somebody to tell me when you want to do this, you’re supposed to do this, ‘ I can tell he believes that things might have been different for him now.
But Vedis channels all his experiences into his work and commitment to the alumni association and to ultimately to the next generations. And he summarizes his mission to keep in touch with young people like this: “To bring them up, to be what they want to be.”
