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The abandoned child who became a charity head

Risper Muthoni, 28, founder Ris Foundation, a
Everyone has a story. Some stories are pleasant, but others, like dark rooms, are scary to revisit. But even the saddest of stories can illuminate our lives and prompt us to become something beautiful.

Risper Muthoni, fondly known within her circles as Rispah Ris, has one such story. She experienced a series of sad events that brought her profound loneliness, and a sense of betrayal. But now, whenever she addresses primary and secondary school students, that dark part of her life gets more and more diminished. The 28-year-old is a motivational speaker and the founder Ris Foundation, a non-governmental organisation that empowers students and encourages them to remain hopeful, strong and resilient even amid excruciating challenges.

When she was just 10 years old, Rispah was forced to learn to fend for herself. She had to know how to cook her meals, and where to get the next one from. Her mother had moved to another town, leaving young Rispah on her own.

“I was in Standard Seven at that time, and moving away with her was out of the question. I stayed by myself before I was taken in by a foster mother.”

Rispah had to live in four different counties while she was in primary school, and had to transfer more than four times in secondary school before she sat for her Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exams in 2013.

“I used to look helplessly around me to take stock of the challenges I was enduring and the help I was receiving. Simple things like being invited over for meals made me feel so nice. I vowed to always do my best to help others, especially young people.”

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Rispah says that she loathed being on her period because she could not afford sanitary towels. Often, she had to use her own clothes in place of the sanitary pads.

But all that is now history. Today, Rispah is leading from the front to help school going girls get access to quality sanitary towels, and that all school boys get underwear.

“Since I founded Ris organisation in 2018, my four co-founders and I have visited 78 schools across the country. In every school we visit, I offer motivational talks to the students, and give them sanitary towels to last them at least two school terms,” she says.

She is yet to get donors to support her cause, so she buys the pads using money she earns through her side hustle — offering MCing services in fundraising events, weddings or birthdays. When this is not enough, she asks government leaders to chip in.

“I usually charge an average of Sh30,000 for my MCing services and while at it, I tell my audience about my initiative and ask them to support me. Also, I often reach out to the leaders of the counties I plan to visit, and some have been overwhelmingly responsive. Some donate the pads while others facilitate our transport to the schools,” she offers.

To augment her passion for mentoring young ones, Rispah enrolled for a counselling course offered by a private trainer.

“I wanted to have a clear understanding of how best to engage with and handle students because whenever we visited the various schools, the girls always opened up and freely made us aware of the challenges they were facing,” she says.

She now runs her organisation on full time basis but before this, Rispah was an industrious woman who sold groceries at a kiosk while running an online cosmetics shop and operating a motorcycle spare parts business.

“While running my businesses, I learnt how to approach and deal with people, and this has helped me communicate effectively when asking for financial and material support, and when making budgets and reports.”

To help supplement their income and meet their expenses, Rispah and her four friends occasionally get stipends from the organisation.

“The amount we get depends on how much financial support we’ve got in terms of donations. Sometimes I use my own resources to pay my staff or plead with my landlord to extend the deadline for payment of rent so that I can meet our foundation’s objectives.”

While she gets so much joy and fulfilment from mentoring young people and helping them get sanitary towels, she sometimes has to contend with some tough challenges.

“Our biggest challenge is lack of sufficient financial resources. My goal is to gift boys and girls underwear and pads respectively to last a year, but we can only afford to give them enough for two terms. We have only visited 78 schools, yet there are hundreds others in Kenya. I wish I could visit all of them, but this can only be possible if I get enough funds.

“I urge other young people to join us. One pack of sanitary pads can save a girl three days of shame and frustration. ”

In recognition of her work and contribution to the society, Rispah was awarded the Inclusion Award last year by the Kenya Red Cross.

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