Meet Nikos Sande

Nikos Sande is 14 years old; she lives in Mathare slums with her mother. Her father died when she was six years old. Her uncles took everything that belonged to them and send their mother away. Her mother has no education and no source of income. Her mother makes soap and sometimes washes clothes for people in Eastleigh to earn a living. She makes 2-3 dollars a day. They live in a small roomed house in Mathare slums made of carton boxes. Nikos admitted herself into a secondary school by force, forcing the government officers and the school board of management to intervene.

She was sent back home but she refused, her mother was called to school to pick her up but she refused to go back home insisting that she wanted to learn. It is for this reason that the local area Chief and other government officers contacted Jali Sisters to help Nikos stay in school. Jali sisters requested for emergency support from Girls Matter and one of the board members called Jan Janzen sent some money for not only Nikos to go to school but all the seven girls who had been referred by the local government administration to Jali Sisters to go to school.

She is happy to have joined high school and she is reading hard and doing her best. She would like to study nursing.