Helen Wendy Nyaputu: A Kenyan woman drowns while broadcasting live on Facebook

CNN
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The father of a Kenyan woman drowned in a swimming pool in Canada During the Facebook Live he talked about losing his family.

Hellen Wendy Nyabuto can be seen in a video as she struggles to stay afloat after diving into the deep end of the pool last week.

The 23-year-old health worker, who lives in Toronto, had earlier responded to viewer comments before resuming swimming.

Her body was seen hours later at the bottom of the pond. According to her brother, she drowned in Collingwood, Ontario, the city where she was working.

Her father, Nyabutu John Kiwende, 56, told CNN from his home in Kenya: “I watched this video. I cried. It’s horrible.”

She contacted me two days before her death. It looked fine and I was very happy. You promised me a phone call. “I didn’t feel anything abnormal,” he said.

Nyabutu lived with her younger brother Enoch in an apartment in Toronto and worked part-time as a health worker while studying nursing, her family said.

“She’s been in Canada for about three years,” said Enoch, who is one of her five siblings.

“They had all the financial responsibilities (of their families in Kenya) on their shoulders,” he added.

Wendy’s father, a smallholder farmer in Kisii, southwest Kenya, said he was “back to square one” now that his daughter is gone.

She was helping me financially for her siblings’ education, especially with regards to school fees and other expenses. Now I’m stuck and back to square one. I wonder how her younger siblings will continue to study.

All he wants now is to return his daughter’s body to Kenya.

“According to our tradition, one is supposed to be buried in the place of one’s birth. I will not feel comfortable if I bury my daughter away from Kenya.

Repatriating Wendy’s body will affect her family’s meager resources, and Enoch said they’ve started GoFundMe campaign To raise 50,000 Canadian dollars (about $38,000) to help with her burial costs.

“The family is going through a difficult time now. All we want is to take her body home for burial.”