My name is Nickson and I am a Ngong Road Children’s Foundation program alumni. From a young age, my siblings and I faced many challenges due to my parent’s financial situation. Staying in school was often difficult and many are times when I was behind in class work but that did not stop me from having big dreams and working towards them. The NRCF program initiative quickly spread in my neighborhood and my mother heard of it. She immediately applied and I was fortunate enough to get a slot.
I then joined the program in 2011 and was admitted to Nelson Mandela School, one of the program’s focus schools when I was in grade 5. I completed my primary education in 2014 and got admitted to Parklands Boys High School in 2015. When I was at Parklands High, I engaged myself in co-curricular activities that kept me active all through. I was not only participating in one sport but three. I was playing rugby which is my favorite sport as well as football and handball. When I was in form four, I knew that I wanted to take a course in hospitality when I joined college as I had an interest in cooking and preparing different drinks.
I completed my high school education and enrolled at Zetech University to take a certificate course in food and beverage production. I really loved the course I was taking and would often practice on my own by preparing different dishes while at home. I graduated in December of 2022 and became a certified chef.
I heard of the TechMates program that was established last year and I was interested in learning a new skill. I went for an interview and I was accepted to join the program in March of this year as an intern. I took the digital marketing path and I immediately started taking the courses outlined by the program for that path.
The internship will take 3 months to complete and I want to transition and become a digital marketing freelancer for the program once my internship comes to an end in June. Once in a while during the weekends, I work as a chef at the restaurant at Tangaza University in Bomas. I also work as a Karibu loo associate where I assist in keeping the portable toilets clean and man the handwash area among other things.
I aspire to start my own restaurant business and use the skills I will have learnt from the TechMates program to market and grow my business. I am extremely grateful to the program for not only taking me through my education but also for the opportunity to join the TechMates program and for making it possible for me to learn a new skill.