Wanjiru Warama

Wanjiru Warama was born and raised in British colonial Kenya, East Africa, to farm-worker parents who scratched a living working at a British farmer's farm. She never ceases to be amazed how books have changed her life.

For her first twelve years of schooling, she never owned a book, saw a library, or a bookstore. And yet she scrambled through her life all the way to graduate school. As an author, she hopes that one day she will build a small library in Solai, where she was born, even if it is a one-room structure. Meantime, she has adopted a high school and an elementary school in Kenya where pupils remain in a similar situation she was in decades ago.

Take away: Never take your life for granted, no matter where you are in life. With handwork, commitment, determination, persistence, and hope, the universe will intervene to make your life better. Are you ready to face your own strengths and biases?