Educator Spotlight: Planting Seeds

Two incredible women, across the world from each other, came together to inspire change and impact communities this summer. Phyllis Wanjiru is a native Kenyan and works with Africa HEART’s Women’s Equality Empowerment Project (WEEP) to ensure all the children of the women in the program go to school. Africa HEART, a nonprofit organization, primarily works with women who are HIV+ and single mothers. The ministry helps these women become sustainable and respected by building them houses, teaching them professional skills, and giving them dignity and a community to grow and learn about God. 

Ashley Loaiza is a Dean of Students at Valor Christian School in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, and a graduate student in Baylor’s Master of Arts in School Leadership program. She led a team of high school students to Nairobi, Kenya, to work with Wanjiru and the seven Africa HEART centers across the country. 

“One of my passions in life is working with high school students and seeing seeds planted,” Loaiza said. “I get to pray over our students, invest in them, and disciple them.”

Loaiza agreed to help lead the team from Valor to Kenya, but she wasn’t sure what to expect. Once Loaiza arrived, met Wanjiru, and experienced Africa HEART’s ministry, she was overjoyed with the work being done to break through poverty and ensure women and children have education. 

Wanjiru was the youngest of three children and her parents supported their family through small-scale farming. She said her family also sold secondhand shoes to increase their income.

“We didn’t have so much,” Wanjiru said. “But at least they could afford to pay our school uniforms, books, and the basics that were needed at the primary level.”

By the time Wanjiru and her siblings were in high school, she said it became very difficult for her parents to keep up with the school fees. 

“By God’s grace, the head teacher of the school was so kind,” Wanjiru said. “She kept me in school because I was getting good grades. By the time I was clearing high school, I had a huge fee balance.”

Wanjiru made it to university and attended the University of Nairobi. For her fee balance, she received some grants and gifts from anonymous people.

“I was told that well wishers would come to the school and ask for students who are performing well, and they would pay. So that’s how I completed my university education,” Wanjiru said. 

Her heart for education and working to eradicate poverty came from her family and gifts from donors who supported her throughout her journey. 

“My dad passed on two years ago, but one thing he kept telling me was, ‘the best thing I can give you is education. I don’t have anything more,’ and that’s why he gave all he could,” Wanjiru said.

Wanjiru knows that the children she serves will be empowered by education.

“I have seen education transform lives,” Wanjiru said. “For the last seven years, it has been a very exciting journey for me to see students who probably were in high school when I came to HEART. They have now completed, gone to university, and now they are helping their parents.”

Students call Wanjiru “The Principal” out of respect. She encourages and inspires the children entrusted to her at Africa HEART to dream big. 

“At a school a couple days ago in another community, Phyllis put a graduation gown on a young girl and did a whole procession with the entire school watching, telling them all to envision themselves in that place in a few years,” Loaiza said. “It’s giving them permission to dream.”

Wanjiru was motivated to show the students how to envision their futures because she once had the same dream. She said towards the end of a high school debate competition, a university professor came in with a graduation gown, and he called one of the girls to put it on. 

“He told us, ‘You know, you can dream.’ And at that point, I actually saw myself in a graduation gown,” Wanjiru said. “Now I take a gown and I go around to our centers as I speak to our students, and it works the same way it worked on me. We have had kids graduate and they say that day, ‘Phyllis, you came with that gown, and I said I must wear it one day.’”

Over 10,000 children have gone through the program since its inception at HEART. They finish high school and have the opportunity to go to university, learn technical and vocational skills, or start their own businesses. HEART is able to accomplish these goals through generous donations to support the children involved. 

“It is a worthwhile investment because it’s generational,” Wanjiru said. “These children will have improved livelihoods, and their children will not need donors to support their children with education because they will be able to pay school fees for their own children. The cycle of poverty is broken.”

Loaiza’s hope is to go back to her community in Colorado and find a way to support Africa HEART and educate people about what’s going on in Africa. 

“This whole issue of poverty isn’t something that we generally deal with on a day-to-day basis,” Loaiza said. “I would love to invite my community into the bigger conversation in third world countries on education on poverty. How do we take a big step back and look at the 30,000-foot view collaboratively? How do we attack this issue globally even?”

Loaiza will have help as some of her students are excited to share about their experiences in Kenya and how it’s shaping their perspectives. 

“I think for us it was just like being able to humble ourselves in the situation and be able to see these kids are so happy with nothing, and we are so unhappy with everything,” Emmy, a Valor Christian student, said. “And so just being able to see the love of God through that has just been really impactful.”

The students from Valor Christian School who visited Africa HEART had debriefs every night to talk about their days spent with the families and ministry staff.

“A lot of us said our gratitude towards our parents has changed since we are working with single mothers,” Emmy added. “Now we realize how much our parents give up for us. Seeing the impact they are making in the worst circumstances, I’m like, I have such amazing parents and I feel like that’s something I take for granted.”

Gratitude for their families and people in their lives was a common theme among the students. 

“I’m going to be more grateful for everything, and definitely try not to complain ever again,” Lilly, a Valor student, said. 

Morgan, a Valor student, shared that she wants to share the stories she has heard and experienced while in Kenya with Africa HEART. 

“I want to show my experience to the world and then help everyone get the recognition they deserve,” Morgan said.

The students recognized the difference that Africa HEART and Wanjiru have been able to make without many resources. Loaiza added that she has been talking about what great education looks like to her students this summer.

“Incredible educators make it possible for students to walk forward into what it is that God would desire, and that’s breaking these generational chains and destroying poverty,” Loaiza said.

As Frederick Buechner wrote on calling, “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

Phyllis Wanjiru and Ashley Loaiza are living out their calling, and they are leading so many others to find theirs too. 

Phyllis Wanjiru joined HEART in March 2017. She holds a degree in Social Work, is trained in social services management and is a certified clinical counselor. She has worked in various organizations; Pearls & Treasures Trust, Help Age Kenya, Kenya Red Cross Society and Department of Children Services. A passionate mentor, Phyllis uses her life experiences to mentor HEART sponsored students on academic excellence and career choice, empowering them to make informed choices. She has worked at building new liaisons and partnerships with other organizations for project improvement, in addition to ensuring timely reporting, budgeting, and payment of school fees for HEART students. She is a member of the National Youth Guidance and Counseling Association (NYGCA), and the Kenya Christian Professional Forum (KCPF). Phyllis enjoys traveling, skating, swimming and making friends; she is mother to Bedan.

Prior to joining Valor, Ashley Loaiza was a youth pastor for five years at Jubilee Fellowship Church. She was also a missionary with Face of Justice Ministries, working with teenage victims of trafficking in Costa Rica for five years. Additionally, she has studied Intercultural Ministry at Moody Bible Institute Seminary and Youth and Family Ministry at Denver Seminary.

Ashley Loaiza felt called to Valor Christian specifically to prepare today's leaders to transform the world for Christ. She believes that high school students are where the heart, innovation, and passion for the future is coming from. She finds her passion in helping disciple and form youth in such a way to know Christ on a deep level. In 2024, she started her Baylor journey in the MA in School Leadership program through the Educational Leadership department. Ashley serves as an MA Fellow for the 2024-2025 year.