Everline Aboka, the Kenyan model based in Canada, who won the prestigious Top Model Worldwide title in a stiff competition, beating contestants from more than 47 countries will be visiting Kenya to launch her own charity. Everline also received the Model Award for her support to the models during the competition, a spirit that is never present in contestants competing for the same title in any competition.
Everline told Word Is, “I am back in Kenya to launch my charity project on September 14. It is called Hope Africa Foundation. Its mission is to reduce the number of street children by providing a safer transitional home.”
She continued, “The project will kick off in Kisumu but will later on expand to Nairobi and Mombasa. Apart from the launch of this project, I will be talking to students in various schools in Kisumu on how to rise against all odds and find purpose to their lives. Its good to be back home, but I feel so much pain seeing the level of poverty most Kenyans still live in, at times I wish I had a quick solution because I have been there and know how it feels. Many people are jobless, the cost of living is high. My biggest dream is to build a rescue home in Kisumu.”
Everline had a difficult childhood. She said, “My journey in life has not been the easy, I lost my loving dad to meningitis. This was a turning point in my life, I was in form three and I had quit school due to lack of school fees, my mom then a business woman was struggling to make ends meet and my brothers were also tarmacking. I wished to go back to school but it seemed impossible, I was literally knocking from one office to another to seek school fees assistance but nobody came to my rescue.”
To save cash for school fees she plaited hair and in 2005 she has raised Sh 5000 enough to register for her KCSE as a private candidate. “In 2006 I got scholarship from Hon Olago Aluoch and studied Journalism and Mass Communication at Woodvale Institute Kisumu and graduated with a distinction,” she said.-The Star
