12-Year-Old Boy Drops out of School, now Preaches in Marketplaces to Provide for his Sick Dad and Grandma

Jacob Nestor Yalwala, 12-year-old boy from Chavakali, a normal day involves traveling as far as Kisumu and Kakamega, Kenya while preaching in matatus and marketplaces to fend for his family.

It is something he wouldn’t ordinarily do, but circumstances have forced him into it as he is the sole provider for his ailing dad and sick grandmother

Speaking to a trusted Kenyan website Tuko.co.ke’s new show Unheard Voices, Nestor revealed that his father survived a stroke in 2014, a few years after he lost his mother.

“Just look at how the situation is in this family, if I stay at home we’d have nothing which means we’d sleep hungry. Who would provide if not me?” he asked Ann Nyathira.

He explained that every day, he goes to different marketplaces where he preaches, prays for people, then requests them to give him some money.

It is from the proceeds of the offerings that he is able to help the family make ends meet.

“They give me as little as five shillings, which I collect and bring home at the end of the day,” he said.

He added that his daily endeavours are blessed by the grandma who prays for him every morning before he heads out.

Nestor admitted that what he does is not an easy thing because he oftentimes meets people who are unkind and unreceptive.

According to Nestor, he dropped out of school because his uncle took him to a special school yet he has no impairment.

He revealed that the reason behind being pulled out of normal primary school was that his teachers had a problem with the fact that he was way too talkative compared to his peers.

“My mom died a long time ago, but for a long while, relatives lied to me that she was in Nairobi working. It is my grandma who finally told me the truth,” he said.

Nestor also pointed out that his uncle John Kavai does not approve of what he does because it paints the family negatively, so whenever they meet, he hides from him.

He, however, maintained that he does not intend to stop because, as much as the uncle offers them food once in a while, a time will come when he will stop.

With every new day, children of Nestor’s age leave their houses to go earn an education, but he takes a different direction to fend for his bedridden family members.

He hopes that his father will one day get healed so that he can go back to working and take care of the family.