One of AMREF’s ‘greats’ is Meshack Ndisi. A most modest man, but one with many achievements, including setting up the National Youth Service in Kenya and the Staff Association in AMREF.
Meshack was born on 26 October 1926 in Uyoma. He was the eldest son of the late Archbishop Isaiah and Trufena Ndisi. In 1945 he began his education at the Alliance High School, Kikuyu where he played the part of a trade union leader in a play entitled “Eothen”, by John Galsworthy. This influenced him greatly and gave him the ambition to become a trade unionist.
In 1948, the British Trade Union Congress offered young Ndisi a scholarship at Ruskin College, Oxford, England where he studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics.
Within a few years of his return, Mr Ndisi became Assistant Labour Officer (Trade Union).
Meshack Ndisi was a member of AMREF’s International Board for many years, Chairman of the Board’s Public Relations and Fundraising Committee, and part of the team that steered the Foundation through many structural changes. In 1980, through his experience both in AMREF’s work and the International Labour Organization, Meshack Ndisi was one of two consultants that AMREF invited to look at the Development and Management of AMREF’s Organization. It was this consultancy that proposed AMREF should have a Staff Association rather than a Trade Union.
He was a popular figure on his frequent visits to AMREF, and until the end of his days his interest in staff welfare was very prominent.
Meshack’s life is the story of a young man in the colonial days, rising beyond all social and political inhibitions to earn remarkable international and continental recognition.
“And his eyes saw the world awake “ words from a poem on Mr Ndisi by Dr Taitta arap Towett.
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