QUITING ALCOHOL

       The love and patience of a mother is like a tube of toothpaste. It's never quite finished. Mary Wambui Kamau knows this only too well. Growing up in Kiharu, Muranga, she craved maternal love because her father had walked out on the family leaving her mother to fend for six children, unable to bear the burden, their mother Pauline took to the bottle and became alcoholic.
     Today Ms Kamau is grateful for her mother is a toetaller with whom she has reconciled after about two decades of separation and also her children have a grandmother to look after them. All these happened because of a tireless prayers. She remembers the cold night of 1992 when they were kicked out of the house in Kibera for lack of rent. This forced their mother to neglect them and were lucky to be housed by their sister's mother who lived in westlands briefly before being taken to their upcountry.
      Mary never gave up and took the responsibility of taking care of her siblings with the help of her grandparents. After completing her secondary school, she joined the professional sales. In 1996, she got married and explained her mother's condition to her husband who was very understanding.
    Her mother quit drinking to take care of her second child who was born last year in November. The rewards were immeasurable. Her mother says that she is determined to be a loving grandmother than she was a mother and today the two enjoy a fulfilling relationship. Mary's mother runs a business in Riruta satellite where she lives and joined a women's group that makes laundry soap for sale.

Location: KIBERA, NAIROBI, KENYA