Meet woman who is serving the dead for a living
As schools reopen this week a woman in Huruma has ventured into coffin making business to pay school fees for her children.
Rhodeshia Wendy, 25, has two sons aged seven and eight — both in Standard Three at Faith Academy, a private school in Huruma.
Talking to NairobiNews, Wendy said she sat her KCPE in 2007, but her parents did not have enough money to take her to secondary school. So she stayed at home. At some point, she got the children out of wedlock.
“This was a burden to me and my parents, so I came to Nairobi in the hope of finding a job. One day I got out of the house as usual to look for job and met a girl who told me of a vacancy somewhere,” she said.
Excuse
She took me there and I was introduced to the owner, but when I realised what kind of a job it was, I decided not to take it. After three days, however, I changed my mind for lack of a choice,” explained Wendy.
But she said she had been careful not to tell her friends and family what job she did as she worked as a house help at Huruma Flats.
Her days in that pretext were numbered because one of her friends soon found out what her job was and spread word about her lowly-regarded occupation. She had to find courage to explain to them why she decided to take the only available job.
However, having worked for five years, her employer told her she could not continue working because her children were now in school.
Nothing would block Wendy’s ambition, with her children’s education at stake, she said.
She asked for a loan of Sh5,000 from her employer and bought materials to make one coffin in 2012 and that was the start of a business that now helps her to take care of her loved ones.
She said from last year, she got many customers; with one coming three times a week to give her an order of seven coffins.
She sells one coffin at Sh8,000 and the costs come to Sh5,000 shillings. She gets raw materials locally and she has created job opportunity for one man to assist her in the business.
Much of the work requires final touches such as furnishing. She says customers love attractive products and that is what she gives them.