 So blessed to be a blessing aims to empower girl, the girl child and also the boy child because we've seen that so many charity organizations are focused only on the girl child but for us we thought that if we empower our girl child and we do not empower a boy child we will be living out a mark and that's why we incorporate and do their mentorship program for all the young generation just to make them understand instead of vying or rather running for equality they can vying to they can seek the equity because when we when we see when we seek equity everyone will be able to understand their responsibility their role in the society and also the place that they need to take so that they can be able to to conjoin and to work together in the society. Okay you've worked aspect of people are struggling to fight for equality instead of working together for equity. Yes. So what is the difference between the two? Equality everyone seeks to put their same their lengths or rather their life in the same level like what a man can do a woman can do a woman can do even better but now when we fight for equity we will be able to understand what is the role of the man in the society what is the role of the woman in the society how can a man pull and help a woman how can a woman pull and help a man so that at the end of the day the same goal that the society is seeking for will be achieved but when now we we keep on seeking for equality it becomes like a competition everyone wants to to fight for the best position in the society. So we should appreciate our roles that we are different yes we can't be the same we have our own strengths and when we work together uh there's great things great things will happen basically right exactly okay so what are the projects that you've uh undertaken with the organization so far? So far so good we've been able to do the mentorship program for the boys and also for the girls and when we come together we teach these young girls and these young boys how they need to respond to the society of the and also of the skills that they can do to be able to put them in a good place in the society and also in the kingdom of God because we are a Christian based organization yeah and as for now we are trying to seek if we can come together with other organization to help this young generation to acquire skills hand skills that they can be able to put their life in good shape wow that's great so why why is Christianity the backbone or the foundation of it because you've mentioned that because personally I'm a Christian and I was raised in a Christian family and besides that our motto is blessed to be a blessing is sharing faith hope and love and when we say faith because we are Christians everything that we do is based on the Christian path of it yes incredible and now take me through the how the mentorship of the boys are and how the mentorship of the girls are how different they are how you conduct them basically so at some point we do bring the boys and the girls together because we tend to believe that there are topics when we teach these young girls and these young boys when they are together they will be able to understand and then also at some point we do separate them when we teach the boys about the society we teach them how to handle the woman of the 21st century and also when we are talking to the girls we teach them how to handle the man and not the man only but basically everything about life in this 21st century yes and how was that worked out for the boys how was the reception the feedback after the mentoring after the mentorship programs we do get positive feedback because like I said many many charity organizations have based their support on the girl child only so when you look around every time when even when you go to mentorship program and we do for the girls only the boys are like we've been neglected so you know when they find someone who can bring them close somebody who can would love to hear their story to hear their challenges they become so receptive that you can you can see even in their eyes like wow so there is someone that values and there is someone that who cares about the boy child too so what would you say are some of the challenges that the boys are facing from you know your interaction with them one of them is that they tend to feel that the woman has been given more empowerment and the care and the concern more than the boy child they will share sometimes like you know Maria if we are to go for an interview you and me the the the higher probability is that you will be chosen and I will be left out so they tend to feel like there is a there is a some certain level of neglect by the by the society and actually I've had that a lot too so how do you counter that because that is also a mindset that they know when I go to this interview she'll be chosen because you know they have a higher chance so how do you counter them how do you encourage them we encourage them by what I began by saying by showing them that first we are not equal because when we are equal we will tend to seek the things that are not also meant for us so we make the boy child to understand that if you play or if you remain in your lane do what you need to do as a young man as a young boy things in the society will just fit in for you we make them to understand that even though the girl child is being empowered they are not being empowered to overcome them but rather they are being empowered to help them because for us as Christian we also believe that a woman was created to be a helper so we make this young generation of boys to understand that the woman is not competing with them but rather they are just being empowered so that they can help them and you know when they understand that they will not want to run like we are in a competition we are being neglected but they will understand that this woman is just being pulled so that he can be able to empower me in my weaknesses and also pull my strength where they can yes so you want that aspect of the woman being a helper but you know sometimes uh some ladies you know want to be the the head and uh that's why we have many feminists and all that and we want to be more than men we want to take roles of men so how do you uh how do you you come back to this when you're mentoring the ladies yeah that's why we are here to to teach the girls that as much as we are being empowered we need to focus on the equity that is what we advocate for that uh your position in the society your title in the in the society should not be meant to pull down the other people in the society not even the men alone but even your fellow gender so we we we teach the girls that whatever you gain whatever whatever you receive whatever you achieve from the society should not be meant to pull down the other people yes it's supposed to compliment yes it's supposed it's supposed to compliment sure okay and i understand that you do something extra for the girls as much as you mentor both of them so what tell us about this um you know where we began this mentorship program uh we found out it was in the slums of Nairobi we found out that because of the feminine hygiene uh park now that is the panty the sanitary parks uh that sanitary towels sops because of just a feminine hygiene park so many girls were going astray to an extent of selling their bodies just giving in to men because they cannot afford a feminine hygiene park so we thought of instead of just doing the mentorship program if we get the resources we can be supporting these girls monthly and we are glad that we've been able to reach out to more than a thousand of girls every month in partnership uh with mana ministries and other partners who have come through to support and to help us and it is and it and it's been of a very very positive impact you can't believe sometimes you just give a girl a feminine uh product and they just cry like now i won't go to do this i won't go to do something negative to my body because i have what i need well sometimes we take that for granted the simple things yes that we have and some people actually go and sell you know they have to because they don't have anything so they have to sell themselves and get the parts and there's a time we talked to a guest and uh she said that even mothers young mothers were selling themselves so that they can afford to buy pumpers for their kids so how is this changing their lives now that you give them because now you can't i don't know if you buy them every month so what's what what happens when you don't give them this uh this pack when you don't give the packs even before because we've set a date like every third um uh week or rather Saturday of the month we do the mentorship program and also distribute the sanitary tablets so a week before the schedule dates they are always calling like are you coming if you don't come we will be in a mess this month are you really coming will you be coming so they keep on asking and that show you how much the dire need for these feminine products is mostly in the slums and also in the interior places like last year we were in the interior of mombasa and we could not believe girls telling us that i have to use i have to cut an old cloth so that i can use whenever i am having my menstrual period wow yes so this are some sad cases but thank god for what you're doing you're doing great things out there so now uh the lives have changed do you do follow-ups uh now and then yes we do yes we do like i have said in the slums of uh Nairobi we have more than 200 girls so what we did because there are too many and we cannot be doing the the the random follow-up we divided uh these 200 girls in four groups so each group has a leader and a contact person in the field so anytime we want to check on one group we just call the contact person and we ask and we ask how is everything how are the girls uh if we are if we are to go we just let them know that next week we will be coming to we will be coming to have a time with a certain group so that's how we do our follow-up wow okay and someone might ask you to you've said you're mentoring both girls and boys and boys having any struggles like the girls are sure yes what is unique what is that unique struggle you you know the the world is changing and as the world is changing the challenges are also rising you know in the olden times it was uh hard for a boy to share that maybe they are going through a trauma of GBV but now you get to hear boys sharing with you their stories that i'm going through a trauma which the society thought that this should be be a girl's trauma somebody is molesting a girl child but in in this period even the boy child is suffering the same case as the girl child so how are you helping them with this we share with them because sometimes you know the parties involved are so are very close people to these young boys and because they they live in fear we tend to help them gain the courage we we we teach them that there are legal ways which they can undertake for them to get the the justice that they need or and also we teach them to understand their rights now when you don't understand your right people can really take advantage of you so we teach them to understand their rights and also if we can help them to go the legal way for them to be able to get the justice they need and also free themselves from these kakuns that that are making their lives seem miserable we do that okay yes so how do you get funding because you've said you buy things you help them how do you get funding um like i've shared with you um at this point mana ministries has been of very big help to us um and also we through mana ministries also we've had another friend from an organization called all for its glory and once in a while we do get individual partners to just see on the social media what we do and they say this month i will support you with the pack of sanita retire wells so basically since 2018 where now we became so active i can say mana ministries all for its glory and um individual partners will see what we do on the social media at the ones who have been supporting us so far so good okay yes and some people have questions over supporting charity organization because of some stories we've had in the past you know so how do okay do you benefit from it you know getting the funds and everything is that something you get from it um what i can say as for now whatever we get we give it 100 because we are we are still a small organization trying to establish ourselves so whatever we get our main focus and our heart our goal is focused on giving back to the society so what we get what we do is just look at the logistic part of it we work on the logistic part of it and then whatever remains we put it out for the people that we need to serve so it's a hundred percent for the charity yes yes sure yes well incredible so how do you support yourself i'm working at mana ministries as the administrators so i'm on on the payroll okay all right you speak with so much passion for this yes so tell us what what brought you to to start this organization out of all the things you would have done why start a bless to be a blessing maria was raised in the slums of dandora and i can say within me there was just a passion of serving other people since i was a child so to me it's a combination of gods calling in the experiences that i personally went through because i became a mother when i was a teenager back in the slums of nerobi so i understand the struggle that the girls go through when they share their stories i see myself being duplicated in their stories because these are some of the hardships that i went through i there was a time i could not afford a sanitary towels and so i said god because you've called me to do this when i get the the strength whenever i will receive the resources that i need to give back to the society i will go back to the slums and give back to the girls and to the boys and that's what i did when god blessed me so wow so what exactly gives you satisfaction out of doing this what gives me satisfaction is that at the end of the day in my heart i know that when we do what we do a life has been impacted and transformed positively for god's glory now when you started there must have been some challenges or did you face challenges yes sure yes sure yes what were some of the challenges and what got you to push through them the funny thing is that when we began blessed to be a blessing we came together just as a group of people from the slums yeah that was in back in 2016 and that's why i said from 2016 to 2018 we were quite passive so you understand in a group of people where we you do not know each other deeply yeah some would contribute this month others would not some decided to just pull out of the group because of their own reasons and so i was left with blessed to be a blessing now as maria alone yes 2016 2017 i tried to pull through every month if i don't have the resources the resources i will just pull two of my friends and we just go visit our children so do cleaning because we do not have anything to give them we just do cleaning we play with their children and just have a good time with them sometimes we will just go to the street children have a good time with them share with them the word of god until 2018 when now we met mana ministries and we started doing uh greater things more than what we did in the in the past two years so how you know uh some people might have uh a great vision but you know because because of the lack of support of people you know drawing out at some point they uh decide to live you know that vision alone why was it so important for you it was important for me because to me it's uh it's a calling you know when you are passionate about your calling i tend to believe that there is nothing that will deter you not lack of resources even if you lack resources there are still other creative ways that you can come up with and continue to serve like for me when when people pulled out and i was left alone with a blessing to be a blessing i thought of i don't have resources but i have my hands i can go to a home i have my mouth i can use my voice to speak to this to the to the to the children in the street and that's what we did until now we came to a point where we can get the resources and now give and continue to do more with our hands and with our voices so we use what we have to do what we want at the moment sure should stop complaining yes all right what are some of the success stories that the memorable success stories from the lives you've impacted uh them uh uh in the in the in the slums or in the slums of Nairobi of Nairobi kisumu so you first tell us where they're located in which Nairobi and which other places Nairobi kisumu and Mombasa and Mombasa so those are the areas that we've quite uh developed in in our endeavor to do the mentorship program and um one one one of the story that that's that stood out for me is um back in madara slums there was this girl that we met and she was going through the trauma of uh gbv and we we we did not we did not like do so much to him but we used our voice to teach this girl the rights that that that that she needs for him to be able to be freed from what she was going through and uh she listened to us and the good thing is that she used the right channel to be able to get the justice the justice that she yeah that she deserves and um you know I was I was happy when he came back and told me that Maria because of the story you shared I decided to go this trail and now I can tell you for free that I've been picked out of the place because she she was living with a relative who was taking advantage of her and because of that she went to the government she went to the local authorities and reported the case and this girl was able to be taken out of this home and now she's in a better and secure place living her life normally yeah wow that's so incredible so how can people support you how can the community support you so you can reach us you can reach out to us because we have a we we are in the media platform with social media platform we have a facebook page a blessing to be a blessing and uh if you are outside the country for now you can you can use now they because now we are partners whatever we receive through them they they give it to they give it to us so if it is papal we are using mana office at yahoo.com and you can also reach out to us through our local number which is plus 254 793 770 91 8 or plus 254 718 930 182 the social media handle the social media handle we have we have we have we only have facebook a facebook page which is blessed to be a blessing yes charity organization charity organization alright uh as we come to our clothes on this what is your vision for blessed to be a blessing organization um my my vision is to one day put up one of the best psychological center that will help because so many people are going are going through mental traumas physical traumas so my vision is to have one of the best psychological center where people will come will just come share out their stories and they get help to be able to live a positive life are these people talking you're talking about from the ones that you are helping from the slums generally from the slums from the most developed areas you know trauma doesn't doesn't define a person or rather doesn't choose there are people who are living in high end areas who are going through trauma yes to very to them would be a certain noble thing for you to do as we close this last question before you give us your final word what is that one thing that when you go you want people to remember you for when i'm gone when you long gone what is that one thing what legacy do you want to live behind the legacy that i would want to live behind is that i touched a million souls transformed in and impacted their lives positively yes so it is safe to say that this you're living out your purpose yes because you're already doing this yes okay thank you very much you have such an amazing story amazing hearts we you know we celebrate you today in strength of a woman thank you all right so we have had a conversation with maria atiyano atiyano i've forgotten that we've had a wonderful conversation with maria atiyano who's doing great things out there she is the founder and director of bless to be a blessing charity organization and from the conversation you can see just how much you can do with the little you have and with time god bless you and you do great things in the world so we celebrate such ladies today it is wcw that's the hashtag to use at 1 to 5 for a channel keep the conversation going we take a short break and we'll be back with that later on