Every morning, Mwitha leaves for school on an empty stomach.
No breakfast.
No packed lunch.
No idea what she’ll find when she returns home in the evening.

What she does know is this: she must find a way to feed her younger siblings before the day ends.

Mwitha is just 14 years old, still in primary school. But life has forced her into a role no child should ever have to take on—she is the parent, the provider, and the protector of her family.

A Home That Isn’t Safe

Mwitha’s parents struggle with alcoholism. They are barely able to care for themselves—let alone their children. The burden of responsibility has fallen entirely on her small shoulders.

Each evening after school, Mwitha goes from shop to shop, borrowing flour for ugali—even though the family is already deep in debt. With whatever she gets, she then heads to the shamba (farm) to pick kale, spinach, and wild greens.

This is the only meal she and her siblings will eat. If there’s enough firewood.

Because even cooking is a challenge.
They use a three-stone stove—the only form of cooking available to them. And before she can cook, Mwitha must first gather firewood, sometimes walking long distances just to find enough to light a fire.

Where She Sleeps Will Break Your Heart

At night, Mwitha and her siblings don’t sleep on a bed.
They don’t even have a mattress.
Their “bedroom” is a patch of muddy floor, covered with an old sack. The house has no cement, no tiles, no comfort. Just cold, dirt, and silence.

Yet somehow, she still wakes up and goes to school.

School—and the Struggle to Stay

Balancing school and survival is a daily war for Mwitha.
On weekends, instead of resting or catching up on studies, she works in the rice fields to try and repay shop debts—most of which weren’t even hers, but her parents’.

And she’s not alone.
Many girls in her situation are forced to drop out of school, choosing early marriage just to escape the pressure. They give up their education, their dreams, and sometimes—their safety.

A Small Victory, But a Start

Thanks to support from PGIO, our team on the ground was able to take a small but meaningful step:
We bought a bed and a mattress for Mwitha and her siblings.

For the first time in a long time, they didn’t have to sleep on the floor.
A single mattress brought back a sense of dignity and hope to a child who has lived too long without either.

But There’s a Bigger Problem We Must Face—Together

Last year’s floods destroyed our rescue home—the one safe space where children like Mwitha could find shelter, protection, education, and care.

And now?
They have nowhere else to turn.

We urgently need to renovate and restore the rescue home. Children like Mwitha are waiting—not just for a place to sleep, but for a chance to be children again.

💔 The Truth? Mwitha Is One of Many

Her story is real. Her pain is daily.
But she is just one of hundreds of children across Kenya living in extreme neglect and poverty.
Children who are raising themselves.
Children sleeping on the floor, cooking over open fires, skipping school, and shouldering debts that don’t belong to them.

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You Can Help Rewrite This Story

🛠️ We need funds to rebuild the rescue home.
🛏️ We need mattresses, bedding, and food.
📚 We need school supplies and dignity kits.
❤️ We need you.

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✅ How You Can Help Today:

• Donate – Every coin brings us closer to safety.

• Sponsor a child – Be the reason they stay in school.

• Share this story – Awareness saves lives too.

• Partner with us – Let’s build stronger communities together.

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🌱 Let’s not wait for another child to break. Let’s act now.

 

📢 Share Mwitha’s story – Be her voice

🤝 Partner with PGIO – Get involved

At just 10 years old, Evelyn Wambui had already endured more pain than most experience in a lifetime.

For three agonizing years, she suffered silently—her body growing weaker while the cause remained unknown. What started as general symptoms soon spiraled into a health crisis. Her parents, frantic and afraid, spent a full year going from one hospital to the next, searching desperately for answers.

But they were met with the same response everywhere: no diagnosis, no clarity, no relief.

Eventually, doctors gave a diagnosis. But tragically, it was wrong. Evelyn was placed on medication that treated the wrong illness. Her condition worsened. Time was lost. Her fragile body continued to decline, and her future slipped further out of reach.

Yet through all of this, her parents never gave up hope.

In desperation, they brought her to a local community church, seeking healing through prayer. That’s where we met Evelyn—during one of Protect a Girl’s Image Organization’s (PGIO) regular community outreach fellowships.

We listened to her story with heavy hearts. Her parents, worn down by worry, shared their journey through tears. Something about the story didn’t sit right. We knew—deeply—that something critical had been missed.

So we stepped in.

With their consent, PGIO took Evelyn to Kenyatta National Hospital—one of Kenya’s leading Level 6 referral hospitals and the apex of the national healthcare system. There, doctors finally uncovered the truth:

Evelyn was battling Hodgkin lymphoma — a serious cancer that affects the lymphatic system, part of the immune system.

For years, she had unknowingly been fighting a deadly disease—without proper treatment, without a name for her suffering.

Hope Restored: A Journey of Healing

With urgency and compassion, PGIO facilitated Evelyn’s full treatment—including several months of chemotherapy, followed by radiation therapy. The treatment lasted approximately 18 months.

It wasn’t easy. There were moments of fear and setbacks along the way. But Evelyn fought with everything she had, and we stood by her side every step of the way.

Today, Evelyn is thriving.
She’s back in school. She’s strong. She’s smiling. And most importantly—she’s dreaming again.

This Is the Power of Community, Compassion, and Action

Evelyn’s story is not just about survival. It’s a powerful reminder of what happens when we listen, when we act, and when we work together to uplift the most vulnerable among us.

At Protect a Girl’s Image Organization (PGIO), we don’t wait for systems to fix themselves. We act—with integrity, urgency, and faith. We stand in the gap for girls like Evelyn—girls who would otherwise be forgotten.

But Evelyn is not alone.
There are many more girls out there—silently suffering, misdiagnosed, or left behind by a broken system.

Let’s Stand Together.

Let’s turn compassion into action.
Let’s build a culture where no child suffers in silence and every girl has the right to health, hope, and a future.

When we come together with faith, empathy, and purpose, we don’t just change one life—we change the world.

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🌍 Join Us. Support PGIO.

Be the reason another Evelyn finds healing.