Damioano Ndung'u Ndiritu

Damioano Ndiritu

Dan was born on the 5th March 1968 in Njeri, a central part in Kenya. Dan was brought up in a family of eight; he has five brothers and two sisters. When Dan was ten years old, Dan's father, the bread winner of the family was killed during an armed robbery at his home. Dan's mother was left to look after her eight children with no money. She could not afford to pay all the school fees so Dan and other of his siblings were forced to leave school as they needed to earn money to educate the others and to buy food for the family. To make matters worse, Dan's mother lost her job by no means of her own making finding money for food and schools fees worsened. There was no income to feed nine mouths; it was everyone for their own. Dan was forced to go the nearby town to find manual work in order to earn some money for his family. Dan later found a job selling water from a nearby river to the urban estates. Dan worked hard and managed to save a little money in order for him to fund a three month course in art / painting at a local poly-technique college. Art had always been Dan's one love and passion in life. Even from a young age Dan had been a strong believer in the elevation of humanity through good education and positive thinking. Dan was a very talented artist and managed to provide for himself and his family from his skill.

In September 2008 Dan heard about the SANCHAT Restart Centre and offered to work as a volunteer to help the street boys learn art, painting and writing poems. Dan is dedicated to his ambition in life which is to learn skills in areas of changing the thoughts of our people, from the individual level to the society level - changing negative to positive so that the level of poverty within the minds and beliefs of the people can be changed. Dan is a dedicated and talented carer and teacher who sets the standards by his exemplary example. We are so fortunate to have a man of this calibre in our midst.

Dan - "in becoming a suitable candidate to change and assist our people I have gotten so much from the Coulson family, especially through Mary Coulson who has done wonders for me and the children."