post people - Nickie Kenning

Nickie Kenning is the president of the Rotary Club of Dagenham and founder of the Bahay ng Pag-asa (House of Hope) outreach centre in the Philippines. She regularly sings at St Peter’s Church in Goresbrook Road, Dagenham.

»In 1978 I moved to Dagenham with my husband John and two children Liza and David.

Shortly afterwards I became a driving instructor, which was an unusual occupation for a woman at that time. I really loved my job helping so many people and after a few years started my own driving school.

In 1990 I became one of a handful of women driving examiners working at the test centre in Barking.

From the time we moved into Dagenham, we have been regular attendees at St Peter’s Catholic Church, and I was very quickly involved with running the Guides, Brownies and Rangers and on various committees.

My husband John is the organist and I am the cantor, leading the singing for over 30 years now. When I started as the soloist I had no idea about singing, didn’t even know that I could sing.

To be honest, at that time I could not sing very well, so I decided that if I was going to make the congregation suffer my noise every week I had better get some training – which is what I did. I had classical voice training for 15 years with Professor Ivor Evans in Ilford. I have performed in several operas and stage shows and continue to sing regularly at St. Peter’s.

In the early 1980s the church organised a pilgrimage to La Salette, a shrine in France. One place on the trip was raffled for £1 and that is really where my story starts.

I won the trip which led to my becoming a regular visitor to the shrine, where I met some Filipino nuns who in 1995 invited me to visit their country. I was so touched when I visited an orphanage there that I decided to volunteer to help look after the children, which I did.

Outreach

I have been a voluntary missionary ever since, founding Bahay ng Pag-asa (House of Hope), a halfway house and outreach centre fighting child abuse and poverty.

For more details please see www.bahay-ng-pas-asa.org.

I joined the Rotary Club of Dagenham five years ago and have organised several community and fundraising events, including a health awareness day giving free health advice to the public and a fundraising barbeque in aid of the Somalian Famine Appeal.

At the beginning of July I had the great honour of being elected as the first lady president in the 74-year history of the club. And all because I bought a raffle ticket!