STARS Foundation

World Teachers Day: Meet Beatrice

22 years old Beatrice Sidi is a source of inspiration for the 110 girls living at the Wema Centre where she teaches. Beatrice came to the Wema Centre from the streets of Mombassa, where many girls live life’s of prostitution and glue sniffing in an attempt to forget their deplorable conditions, when she was just 8 years old.

Beatrice was the eldest of 5 siblings, and was forced to sell bottles on the street with her father to buy food for the rest of the family who survived on less than $1 a day. Beatrice and her family would go most days without eating.

Subsequently her parents separated and the children were left living with their father who married another woman who cared very little for Beatrice and her siblings. The newly reconstituted family moved to a new neighbourhood where the children were discriminated against as their step mother sold palm wine to sustain their livelihood; an unfashionable business that made their homestead a noisy and violent place as drunken men would fight after an irresponsible night of drinking.

Beatrice eventually decided to run away in the hope to find a better life in the streets of Mombasa. She was later found by the Wema Centre, who nurtured her personal and educational development in a loving environment. Beatrice now lives an independent life. She teaches full time at the Wema Centre is married, with has a one year old baby.