Lawyer ditches pomp for charity

Soiya Gecaga, 37, attended the same college as former Prince William and worked in a top UK law firm. But when famine struck Kenya, she quit her plum job and came to help. She has now set-up an education centre in Mathare slum to shape young lives. She spoke to KIUNDU WAWERU

The event was beamed live on almost all TV stations. The private sector was raising funds towards the famine kitty. Watching the unfolding event, one woman smiled and for the umpteenth time affirmed to herself, "I made the right decision to come back home".

Soiya Gecaga had just made it to the "Kenyans for Kenya" fundraising at Nairobi’s Serena Hotel, an occasion that coincided and was familiar to her mission. During the better part of the day, Soiya was at Nairobi’s Mathare slum where she fed children a steaming meal at a school she supports.

That Friday, August 5 this year, was the last school day of the term and ironically, a sad day for children. This is because the children are used to the school meals programme and a holiday means no food for them.

"In response to the famine in the country, we decided to keep the school open so that the children will continue being fed," said Soiya in a refined, lilting accent borne out of living in Europe for most of her life.

Tall and lean with high cheek bones, your first thought would be that she is a model.

Soiya was a tough corporate lawyer working in the finest firms in London. Her final call was at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, the top five law firm in London; she quit it all and started We the Change Foundation with which she is laying ground works for an Early Childhood Development Centre of Excellence to be situated in Mathare.

"It all started in 2008," Soiya says "I had just returned to my office in London from India for the December holidays. I watched on my computer the post-election violence erupt in Kenya and I couldn’t believe it."

Soiya joined the Concerned Citizens for Peace, a group that tried to help. But the events back home bothered her and she felt she needed to be here.

"I spoke to my boss who was for it though there was a problem," she explains.

She wanted a leave of absence but four of her colleagues were already on leave. The only option was to quit.

Her intention was to join peace and reconciliation initiatives. Though over the years she would come for holidays in Kenya, Soiya admits that she did not know her country well.

She had moved to the UK when she was eleven years old. Now, after 26 years of living in the fast lane and attending top schools including St Andrews University in Scotland (the same one where Prince William met Kate Middleton), Soiya had to do a familiarisation tour.

Change Foundation

And to get in touch with reality, she gave the tourist destinations a wide berth and ended up in prisons (Langata Women, Industrial Area), slums (Mathare and Kibera) and camps for the internally displaced.

"In the slums I saw children playing and wondered why they weren’t in school. I was told their parents couldn’t afford fees," she says.

And the dream of educating children, the most vulnerable in a society, was born, compelled further when Soiya met her ‘hero’ Edra Mbatha who had lived in Mathare for 19 years and had set up a day care, Mathare Early Childhood Development (ECD) Centre.

"Spending time with the children and Edra, it wasn’t long before the idea of We the Change Foundation was born," explains the lawyer.

"In Nairobi, there are expensive nursery schools costing upto Sh80,000 a month, same as in the UK. Ours will be of the same quality but offered to children from Mathare, Kibera, and refugee camps," shares the bubbly beauty.

She started working with the slum schools last year and has already identified land where the centre will be constructed.

She picked educationists and in one year, the children’s lives have been positively impacted. Even parents have started taking interest and those who initially didn’t care about their children’s education are now becoming responsible. Similarly, Soiya says that the ECD centre will change the parents lives because it will offer them employment.

Create awareness

"To take responsibility, the parents will be expected to pay. Right now they pay Sh150, which is hard to come by. We had settled for Sh300, but they couldn’t pay. That’s the reality of where we work," says Soiya.

She is determined to create awareness on importance of investing in the education of poor children and is using her networks to raise funds for the same.

"Look at the "Kenyans for Kenya" initiative Kenyans are willing to support noble initiatives," she says.

Even though Soiya was involved in charity while working as a lawyer, looking at the problems in Kenya she would ask; "why can’t someone do something?"

But then her favourite quote by Mahatma Gandhi came to play:We must be the change we want to see in this world.

Her We the Change Foundation is doing just that. Soiya believes that if every child is given quality education, then tomorrow will be brighter.

"A research by Harvard School says that children’s brains develop fully by the age of eight. So it’s important to put interventions early," offers the warm lawyer.

Besides creating hope and conducive environment for poor children, the centre will incorporate six core elements; education, food and nutrition, health care, play, life skills and child protection.

"The first time I met the children they were shy. We have instilled confidence in them," she offers. The school has 30 children aged between two and seven years. Soiya says they plan to have 100 children in a year and 500 in five years.

An ambitious plan indeed. And after giving the children such a foundation what next?

"When children start with us, we will walk with them until they are age 18. But since ours is an ECD, we will partner with quality primary and secondary schools who offer scholarships," Soiya explains. At 37, and without children of her own, Soiya knows she has taken a lifetime call.

Does she have regrets?

"Not at all; this is what I will do for the rest of my time," she says with a grin.

She takes inspiration from her grandmother whom she’s named after, Thoiya Gecaga.And she speaks highly of her: "My great grandfather educated his five sons, but left my grandmother out just because she was a girl. She educated herself and among her achievements was making history as the first Kenyan nominated MP in the Legislative Assembly in 1958."

Soiya believes that she, too, like her namesake, must leave a legacy. In her free time, the learned friend does yoga.