Irene

Hi! My name is Irene Kagunda and I am ten years old.
I live in a town called Soweto in Kenya. Kenya is in Africa.

This is my mum, Joyce. She runs a small shop that sells things for the house. CAFOD’s partners in Soweto gave mum a loan to help her sell more things in her shop. Now she can buy better food and clothes for me. She can afford to buy me school books too! I go to Riverine Primary School. There are 170 children at my school. My classroom is bright and happy. I walk the 2km to school in the afternoons with my auntie. There are not enough schools in Soweto for children to go for the whole day. We get lunch at school – usually sukumawiki and ugali (greens with maize-meal porridge). Maths is my best subject. I like my teacher Miss Wanjiku, she helps us with things we don’t understand. When I grow up I want to be a nurse. I get home at about 5pm and do my homework for an hour. After that I help my mum, then I go and play. I like skipping! When we skip we sing a song called ‘Superstyle’ which means that while you’re skipping someone calls out a style and you have to do it - for example, you have to put your hands behind your head!If I could greet children in the UK I’d tell them to be good and clever in class and to behave well.