Written by Isaiah(HHFL admin) and Leah(HHFL college student)

This is a brief background about the developing success story of Leah, one of the HHFL’s post secondary students. I have considered sharing this to bring to perspective what she is currently studying. I have personally known her since 2012 when I joined HHFL, and it was about 3yrs since she joined the HHFL pre school program then known as Tiny Tots. I have known Leah to be a soft spoken girl and a bit shy. She has grown through school under my watch and like all the other HHFL chaperons I have been keen to see what kind of an adult she grows into. In her early years she wanted to be many things when she grows up, and she worked indeed very hard with the support we give to her and to all the rest.

At the end of high school about a year ago, Leah had really wanted to study medicine as her life career. She however did not meet the cut-off grades to study medicine as she had always dreamt, and this bothered her for some days. She however shocked us when she presented to us her post-secondary proposal about studying mortician science. It is a career not many people would dare venture into, leave alone it being for a young lady as this. She knew and we too knew that she would be handling the dead before their internement for burial, and this, coupled with a number of traditional African beliefs about corpses, would such a toll on her. Her determination was however the one thing that got us interested in supporting her dream.

One year later, Leah is going unbelievably strong in her studies. She has turned out to be a very sought after intern in a number of morgues around Nairobi, and this is why we would only do her justice by sharing her success with our donor network and friends. She is an inspiration to many (especially young women) who need to rise against their fears and odds to elk their pathway through life and careers. Here below is an update letter she shared with us recently:

“Hi, it’s Leah. You are still going to wonder why I became a mortician? Throughout my life I wanted to work in a hospital and become a doctor. I would always be looking for skills for first aid from the internet during the activities in the project.

Unfortunately, after high school my grades did not allow me to do medicine. After some time I learnt about Mortuary Science as a course. So I enrolled after learning about it and here I am right now as a continuing student.

My first time handling a body was very scary since we were taken for practicals in a real mortuary. But during learning, the whole process would take place in a lab called a gross lab where we use cadavers for learning. I wouldn’t say they were scary but a little bit weird since their organs were the ones we were using for learning e.g. the kidney, heart , lungs and also bones. For the bones, one was required to learn by heart, all the bones of a human skeleton in order to qualify for the whole course. Immediately after finishing everything in the gross lab we were then taken to a funeral home for practicals. That is when I saw my first body. I was taught how to embalm(of which I have become a good embalmer), do postmortems and dress bodies. I found everything interesting, especially the postmortems since I saw how organs are in a human body, how to remove organs from the body without destroying them and also giving a report about the body.

So far I have dealt with bodies from murder cases, suicidal cases, drowning cases, maternal cases, burns cases, RTA( road traffic accidents), poisoning, sudden death and others. I have learnt on a more deeper understanding that life is precious and short , one should enjoy everything.

Being a mortician is very interesting and really enjoyable in some way. I have a desire to help bring people comfort at their most vulnerable and lowest point in their lives by making sure their loved one(s) looks as if they are sleeping. Death is not pretty, we make it look beautiful and peaceful. When family members tell me their stories of their loved ones after they see them in the casket, it means their loved one’s appearance brought about positive memories and emotions. THAT is why I do this.

I’m so happy you gave me an opportunity to pursue the course. I’m really happy and contented about the whole course. I’m hoping to work outside Kenya as an embalmer and mortician  in the mortuary set up. I have attached photos with uniforms after work and during the day.

Regards, Leah”