Where is Beatrice Now?

Sometimes our dreams change.  Beatrice did go to college but she did not train to be a nurse.

At Utali College she majored in Hotel Hospitality.

Now she works in the Hotel industry in Nairobi.

She is also continuing her education.




Here is Beatrice now.

What a lovely hard working young woman!  Courageous and determined.

And here is what Wendy Stone the photographer who illustrated Beatrice's Dream has to say about the journey:

Beatrice's Dream:  I first met Beatrice in 2006 when she was 13 years
old living in Kibera slum. I met a well known children's book writer,
Karen Williams, when she was a visiting author at my daughters school in
Nairobi. She was eager to write a book about a child living in a slum.
We found Beatrice through an NGO that I worked with in Kibera. Karen met
with her and wrote her story.  I spent one day with her photographing "a
day in the life of Beatrice".  Karen already had a literary agent for
her other books. We put together a proposal but it took 2 years for the
agent to find a publisher who was interested in the book.  Finally she
found one, and the publisher wanted many more photos of Beatrice. This
was in 2008 to 2009, right after the political riots in Kenya. Large
areas of Kibera burned to the ground and Beatrice was nowhere to be
found.  I had to take more photos. So I took the photos of Kibera and
her school and teachers and friends but without Beatrice being there. 
It worked! The publisher loved the photos and they approved the book.
But then the next hitch was that they needed her to sign a release
giving them permission to publish her story and photos. It took us one
year to find her. Finally in 2010 I managed to find her through an ad
that I ran in the daily newspaper with her photo titled Missing Child.
The next morning I received an anonymous phone call informing me that
Beatrice was a student at State House Girls Boarding School in Nairobi.
Fortunately she had a sponsor who was paying for her private schooling.
I went to visit her that same day but the school refused to let me see
her without the presence of her social worker, who was her guardian, at
the time. It took several attempts before I managed to meet with her. 
It was an emotional reunion and I was relieved to see her looking so
well.  The school would not let Beatrice sign a release form for the
book since she was still a minor and her social worker guardian was very
suspicious of my motives, most probably thinking that I was eager to
make money from this book. I had to hire a lawyer to intervene in the
case. The lawyer met with the Social Worker and finally he approved the
book. This happened just two weeks before the publisher's deadline, over
a period of several months. I met with Beatrice to show her the first
draft of the book for her final approval. She asked that I omit two
photos of her brother, which I agreed to.  After the book was published,
Beatrice graduated from school and lived with her guardian's family. I
was still living in Kenya at the time and was able to assist her in
visiting colleges and making decisions about her future.  The royalty
from the book paid for her education at Utalii College where she majored
in Hotel Hospitality.  She is now working in the hotel business in
Nairobi.