A mechanic with a mission

“You all know the saying, ‘Experience is the best teacher,’” 25-year-old Victor says with a wry smile on his face. “My past has shaped me a lot.”

Victor grew up in Kayole, an informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya. “[It’s] well known, famously, for youth who are into gangs and drug addiction, overpopulated,” he says, “but also with young people with changing stories—like me.”

Today, Victor works as a mechanic. He enjoys the work. He’s passionate about cars. But as a child and teen growing up in dire poverty, this wasn’t the predicted outcome.

Fighting the shame and pressure of poverty

“Personally, I struggled with drug addiction due to negative peer pressure while in high school,” Victor says.

He may have been especially susceptible to his peers’ influence: He recalls having low self-esteem and being ashamed that he and his six siblings went to school without shoes, backpacks or uniforms. His dad worked casual construction jobs to provide for them, but they often ate just once a day.

After high school, Victor joined a group of garbage collectors, but it wasn’t honest work—they often snuck into clients’ homes and stole their possessions.

“I was not comfortable with the situation,” says Victor, “but God came through for me.”

Becoming a trustworthy mechanic

Youth Works is a program operated by World Vision in Nairobi. The program equips young people with counselling and skills training and connects them to local employment opportunities. Through Youth Works, Victor received a scholarship to a college where he completed a certificate program in motor engineering.

He made some changes in his life, including a deepening of his Christian faith. Today, he says his greatest strength is “the ability to adapt to any changes that I may face in life, knowing that God is my guide in all that I do.”

Victor is a good mechanic, skilled in computer diagnostics and wiring, though he wishes he had access to more modern tools. He’s known for being trustworthy—clients are at ease when they leave him with their vehicles.

He gets truly animated when he talks about German cars, his “passion,” and dreams of owning one. But he also has a larger dream that will benefit more people than himself.

The dream of a garage that gives back

Victor wants to transform his home, Kayole, by bringing youth off the streets. He’ll do this by opening his own garage, where he’ll train and employ young people with potential who haven’t been given educational opportunities.

“I have learned from my mistakes and those of my fellow friends,” he says. “If given the opportunity, I would love to change their lives.”

When asked what inspires him, Victor names his dad, who worked so hard to give his kids what they needed. “It was a little bit exhausting, and being a young man I really felt his hardships,” says Victor. “That's what inspired me more and more to keep pushing forward.”

Did you know Canada celebrates International Development Week every year at the beginning of February? It's a time to understand and be proud of how Canadians help to eradicate poverty worldwide. Through World Vision, Canadians have played a role in Victor's life transformation.