Manya Sainabu Atemba was born in 1949 in Maraba, an area located on the outskirts of Kakamega town. She was raised in a very large family of twelve children, where she was the firstborn child. She did not receive any formal education because her parents were small-scale peasant farmers who could not afford school fees. She remained at home during her childhood years to assist her parents with farm work and to care for her younger siblings. After growing up at home, she engaged in casual agricultural labor to support herself. She later got married and moved to Shikhambi Village, where she settled down with her husband, Hamisi Manya, who worked as a local jua kali artisan making cookstoves. The couple was blessed with eleven children, but seven of them sadly passed away over the years, leaving them with only four surviving children. Raising the large family was an intense struggle, as the husband's income from making cookstoves was very small, meaning they frequently slept on completely empty stomachs. The children could not complete their education due to the lack of school fees, with some dropping out in class seven or eight, while others did not attend school at all. Life became much harder when her husband passed away, leaving her as a destitute widow living in a fragile mud house. Her remaining children do not have stable employment, as her son works irregular jobs in Garissa, one daughter does some small business, and her daughter Faridah Ayera stays at home to care for her through subsistence farming. Her situation worsened significantly when she suffered a severe stroke that left her paralyzed and completely dependent on Faridah for cleaning, washing, and feeding. The local village elder, known as Likuru, visited the home and witnessed the extreme hunger and lack of medical care she was enduring. The elder forwarded her name to the Mama Ibado organization, whose representatives visited her damp mud house to assess her vulnerability. She was officially registered into the seniors' feeding program on June 21, 2021. Since her enrollment, she has been receiving a monthly supply of maize flour, milk, sugar, rice, and salt. "We used to sleep hungry and lacked money for medical attention, but now the food supply has given us relief," her daughter, Faridah, states. The nutritional support has brought stability to the household, reducing the psychological burden on her caregivers. She is very grateful to the organization for restoring her dignity and keeping starvation away from her doorstep. However, she still lives in a dilapidated mud house and suffers from the debilitating effects of the stroke. She requires continuous donor assistance to access medical treatment and to maintain her basic human dignity in her frail old age.
