At the age of 11 Jane Kubai’s father told her it was time to leave school, be circumcised (FGM) and get married. So she ran away from home and a priest helped her find a job as a maid. 

‘I told him please, I want to go back to school and achieve my dream to become a doctor, so he sponsored me until I reached secondary school.’

After a few years Jane had to drop out, to get a job and support her elderly parents and siblings. Yet she never gave up her dream. Working for five years as a security guard at Consolata Hospital in Nyeri County, her empathy and intelligence shone through: ‘I know the pain of the patients and their visitors,’ she says. ‘We talk, we pray, I encourage and console them.’ 

Amref colleagues spotted her talents and trained her in COVID-19 prevention and management. She began to educate communities and patients on how to prevent COVID-19, tackling fears about the vaccine and giving them life-saving information.

Jane took a Basic Life Support certificate and – in her lunch break – started working on the wards. ‘But I was most interested in Theatre’ she says. ‘I wanted to care for the patients after their operations.’ With her savings she became a part-time student at Mary Lonela Consolata Medical College to pursue a Certificate in Theatre Technology.

Jane has now graduated and works at Nakuru Rongai Hospital as a Theatre Assistant. But she still aims to continue with education so that she can achieve her lifelong dream and become a surgeon.