I (Jan) recently visited Daystar in Kenya. It is such a privilege to spend time with so many wonderful people there. Students, staff and faculty are all a cut above the rest! I met so many people and I am looking forward to telling some of their stories. Below is one student's story.

Mary caught my attention as I was meeting with small groups of students. She mentioned a love of plants and that she is a part of the environmental club at Daystar. They help plant the trees on campus. While I love this about Mary, it is not what captured my attention. That she was very pro-active and supplementing her scholarship stood out. Back in my generation, forward thinking parents taught their kids to have a fall-back job. What I mean is this: perhaps your son wanted to be an engineer - great, but first you taught him how to paint a room, and then he worked his summer job painting for some extra cash to get through college. Those practical skills also helped out when the job market was tight. Mary is helping put herself through Daystar with a bit of creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Here's Mary's story in her words:

As a girl, I would always be fascinated by the beautiful women I saw perfectly dressed in shows, movies and around my neighborhood. As a teenage girl living on her mom’s meager income, to dress up decently enough we often had to opt for thrifted clothes. Being overweight and with a peculiar taste (mostly because I was trying to hide my body shape), my mom couldn’t buy me clothes off the rack so she had to take me to the flea markets. For a long time we stayed in Mathare Valley near a market along the Nairobi river where clothes are as cheap as five shillings (about 3-4 cents). We later moved to Huruma which is also in Mathare but just a little farther but also has a market called Gikomba. Here clothes are also cheap but you just have to go early enough to get all the good pieces.

I joined Daystar in 2023, and this is after my older sister deferred for a year, so my mom could use all money on me. It wasn’t a lot but I managed and also through the grace of God and financial aid help with a one-time gift. During my May 2023 holiday, I tried getting jobs but couldn’t find anything. Fortunately for my sister, she was able to go to her school during the May semester. When we got to September, as a family we had to choose again who goes to school and who doesn’t. I told my mom to let my sister go and finish quickly so that I may not have such hiccups in the future. After my sister's fees were paid, I called the Financial Aid office to tell them I’m deferring, but was advised to come to school and talk to them one-on-one. I ended up being allowed to register, but didn’t have a place to stay on campus. I decided to settle for aluminum apartments across the road from the Main Gate that were 2,800 shillings (about 22 dollars) a month.

One day, a friend came to visit me, my small apartment had previously been flooded from heavy rains and so I was sorting out my things. She saw my clothes and said she wished she had such a “closet” and asked where I get my collection of clothes from. I explained the flea market, and she offered to pay me to take her to Gikomba and that’s how I got the idea to sell thrifted clothes to university students.

During the December holiday, I shopped for clothes that I thought university students might like. If I bought a top at ten shillings I’d sell it at 100 shillings. If I buy a pair of jeans at 30 shillings, I sell it at 250 or 300 shillings. I started by investing 700 shillings at a time. I would use 500 for my transport to and from the market, as it’s a long way from Athi Campus. So 200 shillings was the amount I had to buy the tops and jeans, trousers, or skirts. From it, I always would make about 700 or 800 shillings for getting the clothes and about 500 shillings for my mom or siblings, and a little more saved up.

Then I thought about how to get the word out. Since people tend to mute social media groups, I resolved to not start my own group. I send the pictures of my clothes to the Daystar Buy and Sell WhatsApp group. (This group has over 700 people on it.) Often I carried the tops and sold them to my classmates after class. At times I randomly approached people I thought could buy or maybe just look at my clothes, then maybe pass the message to others. Due to my class schedule and volunteering at a local high school three times per week, I often would go door to door in the hostels on Tuesdays, trying to sell the clothes I had on hand. I must go to Nairobi campus on Thursdays for my regular counseling session. Since I’m already in town, I can go to the market on that day and it saves me some of the transport money. I just have to make sure to get up by 5 AM to catch the early Daystar bus from Athi River and be back from Gikomba to the Nairobi campus by 5 PM to catch the bus home to Athi River. Sundays I rest.

Because of how this whole thing started I have tried escorting others to Gikomba, but it has not been very successful. For example, this semester I have only taken four girls. I charge a thousand shillings for the trip to cover my transport and make some profit, however people see it as too expensive and would rather send me or just wait and see what stock I have.

So far it’s all good. It can get tiring, but there is also the reward which makes it worth it. There are loses, as some clothes don’t get resold, but I have proof that most of my taste is good, so I don’t think much of it. The aim of all this is to ease the load for my mom and not to lack the basic things a girl needs and that I might desire. When I started this and then told my mom, I saw a spark in her eyes, the type that seemed to say, “I did well as a mother. I know you know how to use your hands and you are cleaver enough to put a good idea into practice.”

This is the story of starting Jink, Jeans Initiave Kenya. Sometimes when I’m in the market I just stare at the mounds of jeans and think about how I can re-design a pair of jeans or up-cycle that huge pile of jeans. I wonder how I can turn that heap of blue into a greener thing for the good of this earth.

Yours faithfully, Mary