A Kenyan woman based in Dubai has opened up about a childhood secret she only came to fully understand as an adult, revealing that a primary school teacher had been quietly paying for her entire education without her knowledge.
Peris Maranga shared the story on social media, recalling how she moved to Prosper School in Marmanet around Standard 6 and settled into boarding school life without a care in the world.
Secret Arrangement Behind Fees
What she did not know was that her parents had made a private arrangement with her teacher, a woman she knew only as Teacher Harriet.
“My parents were not paying school fees,” Maranga wrote. “Boarding. Uniform. Books. Whatever I needed for school. Teacher Harriet catered for everything.”
The revelation struck her deeply because she had spent those years completely unaware of the sacrifice happening behind the scenes.
She was, by her own cheerful admission, simply eating, sleeping, learning and occasionally testing the school rules.
Her Education Matters
Teacher Harriet’s involvement went far beyond fees. She remembered Maranga’s birthday every year and would have a cake baked and sent home so the young girl could celebrate with her friends.
When the school food did not appeal to her, Maranga would slip away to Teacher Harriet’s house, where the house manager had grown so familiar with her visits that she reportedly knew exactly why the girl was coming before she even knocked.
The relationship was warm but not without boundaries. Teacher Harriet disciplined Maranga whenever she stepped out of line, and her most effective threat was a simple one: she would call Maranga’s father, who was a former soldier.
“My behaviour could change immediately,” Maranga recalled with humour.
It was only after she had left primary school and moved on to high school that the full weight of Teacher Harriet’s generosity began to settle on her.
Writing from Dubai, she reflected on what it means to be on the receiving end of quiet, unconditional kindness.
“Someone had looked at a little girl and decided: ‘Her education matters,'” she wrote. “She didn’t know where life would take me. She didn’t know what I would become. She simply chose to be kind.”
Maranga said the experience has shaped how she shows up for others, whether by sharing an opportunity, offering encouragement or simply reminding someone not to give up.
“Because once upon a time,” she wrote, “somebody was that person for me.”
