“What do you want to be when you grow up?”  

Jim Pesce asked me this question when he visited my village near Kitale. I still remember the moment.  I was a little girl at the time, but I knew the answer. Without a second thought, I told him: “I want to be a banker.”  

There’s nothing quite like a child’s imagination. Running around in open fields, we see the skies above as our only limit. Nothing can squash our dreams. As we grow, that sky gets closer to the ground as we realize that some things just aren’t possible. I know what it’s like to have a dream that others encouraged and supported. At Horizon, we want to provide that same support to the children within our care. 

A certain group of children at our Maono Light community have a dream, too – a dream to become civil engineers. They are hands-on kids, quick to help around the micro community. Their latest project involved building a fence around the bee-keeping farm at the micro community. They are supported by Baba George who mentors them in their projects. (Read more about George’s supportive, hands-on parenting here.) These young boys — Lameck, Michael, Perfect Abraham, Prosper and Briaton — are currently in primary school, but they’re not letting their young ages stop them from dreaming big! Brighton, a high-school student, is part of the group as well.

Baba George keeps the boys busy with special projects. One day, he instructed them to inspect a pathway in the micro community that runs from the main gate to the poultry unit and write down their findings and recommendations.

Brighton loves the activities — he sees them as a wonderful opportunity to put into practice his aspirations of one day becoming civil engineer. Together with his brothers in the micro community, they began working on the apiary fence and the pathway. Baba George gives the boys room to be creative and proactive, and only supports with advice and direction. 

“Since I aspire to take civil engineering as I further my studies, I get self-driven to do the repairing of the road and erecting the fencing poles as they will be part of that course,” Brighton said when asked why he does what he does in the micro community. 

Childhood dreams change when we get older. We develop other interests that change the trajectory of our career path. But I know, at least for me, some dreams stay the same. I worked hard in school, and today I hold a master’s degree in Finance. So yes! It is true that a child’s dream can come true with the right support, mentorship, love and motivation. 

Written by Dorice Lusuli