The village was opened in 1975 and Janet and her two younger brothers were the first children in her family house, no 14.
"Everything was strange to us," she recalls. ”It was a completely new way of life. I felt shy, especially as I only spoke Kamba (a local language) and all the other children spoke Kiswahili. I couldn’t understand what they were saying. My mother, Mama Frances, taught me a little Kiswahili every day, and that was how the learning process of my life really started. I thought she was a bit stern and serious at first, but it only took me a few days to work out that she was really a very sweet person. I must have been quite irritating at times, yet she never lost her temper."
Learning from mistakes
Janet feels that Mama Frances’s patience was one of her best qualities, though she had many others. “She always tried to ensure that I felt loved and protected, that’s especially important when you’re growing from a child into a teenager, when changes and conflicts are normal”, she explains. “My mother was never invasive; she realized that as an adolescent I needed more privacy. She allowed me to make mistakes and learn from them, but she also set limits that expressed her love and concern for my well-being and safety.”
Janet says that her mother taught her never to back down from challenges. "She taught me to be strong, to be true to myself, and not to let other people push me around. On the other hand I also learned to consider others, to have compassion and solidarity, and to show love."
Recognizing talent
Today, Janet works as a fashion designer, a career she says she owes to her mother and her upbringing in the SOS Children’s Village. "I have always been creative," she explains. "I couldn’t stand maths at school, and I couldn’t see myself as a secretary, sitting at a desk and typing documents. My mother recognized my talents: she told me that I had style, and an eye for fashion."
Confidence in Janet's abilities
Her mother had confidence in her abilities, so together with SOS Children’s Villages she arranged for Janet to take a course at tailoring school. After two years Janet obtained her certificate. She then went on to be an intern for one year at the SOS Vocational Training Centre so that she could put her theories into practice.
The SOS Vocational Training Centre is about a kilometre from the Nairobi SOS Children’s Village. Opened in 1985 the school teaches woodwork, electrical engineering, fashion design, food and beverage skills and computing.
Janet recalls, “After one year there I was accepted by the Fashion College in Nairobi, and SOS Children’s Villages paid my student fees, so I could further develop my design skills.”
“SOS not only gave me a chance to develop my skills and talents”, she says, “They also gave me a sense of discipline, which we all need in life, no matter what we do.”
If I only could tell her …
Today Janet works as a fashion designer but finds the time to make school uniforms for the children at the SOS Children’s Village.
Sadly Mama Frances passed away in 2009. "I really miss her," Janet says. ‘We always talked to each other about everything. Even after she retired I used to go to her rural village and talk to her. If my mother was still alive”, she adds, “I would tell her that I love her and tell her how much I owe her for the way she brought me up.”