A year on: Diana Chepkemoi, worker rescued from Saudi Arabia transformation

Stories are told of those that went to seek greener pastures in the Gulf countries, never to return.

Families and friends have hit the headlines one too many times pleading with the government to help bring their loved ones home, alive or dead.

This was the case with Diana Chepkemoi’s family nearly a year ago after photos of their kin revealing her deteriorating health and misery surfaced online.

Chepkemoi, the second-born child in her family had dropped out from the Meru University of Science and Technology in 2018 to seek greener pastures in Saudi Arabia.

Narrating her ordeal to The Standard in September last year, Chepkemoi claimed that by the time she decided to share pictures, she was psychologically tortured, overworked, starved, and denied medical attention.

According to her, sharing the photos was the only way she could save herself and get home alive; it worked and she made it back home in Kenya.

A year later, a healthy, happy, and youthful Chepkemoi captioned on one of her Instagram pictures: “Happy days are here again.”

Looking through, the change is clear as day and one cannot help but smile.

In an Instagram post on October 2022, she appreciated those that held her hand in that period saying, “Rosemary and Kevin pulled me out of the dark pits of depression and self-hatred. She constantly reminded me we first win with our minds. Without them, I wouldn’t be able to have the courage and strength to speak out.”

In 2022 after coming back from Saudi Arabia, Meru University offered to support Chepkemoi by catering for her academic fees and giving her a job at the school library so that she can fend for herself even as she studies.