Promoting Girls Rights in Kenya
Supporting the poorest and most vulnerable girls
Girls dancing at Karibuni
Why girls ?
Improve a girl’s life and many more lives benefit: her brothers, sisters, parents and beyond. As an educated mother, an active citizen and an ambitious entrepreneur, or prepared employee, she can break the cycle of poverty.
Yet, despite her proven potential, in today’s developing countries she is more likely to be uneducated, a child bride, exposed to HIV/AIDS. And about half a cent of every international development dollar is directed to her; 99.4 percent of funding goes elsewhere. The world is missing out on a tremendous opportunity for change.
Girls deserve the best in life the right to education the chance to be healthy the opportunity to succeed. Investing in girls means you help an entire community help them selves .
Girls sewing class
Human Rights Gender discrimination & violence are major issues in Kenya; in remote rural areas such as Ndhiwa traditional practices, lack of education and extreme poverty contribute to widespread injustice against girls and young women.
Girls support group leader - Caroline
Opportunity?
Evidence shows that bolstering girls’ health, education and prosperity will build prospects for her family and her country’s economic prosperity. Tap her potential and the world benefits:
• Ensure she has seven or more years of education and she will marry four years later and have 2.2 fewer children.
• When 10 percent more girls go to secondary school, the country’s economy grows by 3 percent.
• When an educated girl earns income she reinvests 90 percent in her family, compared to 35 percent for a boy.
• When women have the skills to participate in public life, government corruption declines.
Fighting poverty has no easy answers, but there are unturned stones. The girl effect is a new hope, an investment with exponential returns. Our challenge? Working together to set that cycle in motion.
Girls grow up in Ndhiwa in exceptionally difficult circumstances, they suffer more from malnutrition are less likely to get an education more likely to suffer violence and many are subjected to daily abuse at home and in school
Discrimination against girls is systematic and widely tolerated. Girls are extremely vulnerable to health problems including HIV /aids
Education—Girls will not stay in education if they are subjected to abuse and violence & lack of adequate sanitation facilities .Girl friendly education is vital and has been proven to work . Girls need safe environments at home at school and in the community
We can provide advice support vocational and academic training for the girls and a program of community education to combat discriminatory practices. We can equip parents, schools and community leaders with knowledge and skills to create an environment where girls are safe from harm and cared for equally.
Founder Member of the Girls Support Group Lisa
New project Girls football
Nicholas & Lorraine recently visited the very successful Moving the Goalposts project in Mombassa and are planning to work in partnership to set up a similar scheme in Ndhiwa using football to help tackle gender disparities
Girls and women in Ndhiwa are some of the world’s poorest and most disadvantaged people. Low retention in school, early and unwanted pregnancies and vulnerability to HIV/AIDS trap them in a cycle of poverty. Our new project plans to use local and youth centred approaches to tackle these issues ensuring girls’ participation as leaders and decision makers
The project will use football to develop essential life skills – confidence, leadership, self esteem – of vulnerable young women. Football also provides a unique entry point for reproductive health, human rights and economic empowerment initiatives.
Eunice' Biography ( Girls Support Group member )
I am Eunice Awuor; I'm 22 years old, I come from Ndhiwa. I am from a family of ten My father was a polygamist, he had two wives unfortunately both of them passed away .My real mother bore him four girls and she was the first wife but because in my society girls are lesser beings ,he went for another wife who bore him five boys and one girl making us ten. My mother died in the year 1994 while my step mother died in 2002. Since then we have been staying with our grandmother .My father is just a peasant farmer so my two elder sisters did not go beyond primary school and then they got married. I am the first to finish high school in our family but this was after I begged my working uncle to assist in paying my fees. He agreed and took me to a nearby high school; Nyamanga mixed secondary school, where I attended as a day scholar.
I sat for Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education [KCSE] in the year 2005 and attained a mean grade of c+[plus].This is my third year since I left high school and I have realised that my uncle is not ready to pay my college fee, according to him the education I've acquired is enough for a woman. My father too has nothing completely to offer me, I can do nothing about it but I haven't given up, I will keep on fighting my way out.
At the moment, I am a member of the Girls Support Group where I volunteered to work with the girls as their mentor, I am also the treasurer of the group. During the time when I'm not with the girls ,I do my small business of selling maize where I get some small income.
I would really want to be a role model to the girls whom I teach and other girls from my community. I would like to make them realise that as much as there may be lots of obstacles on their way, they can overcome those obstacles but only if they are determined and focused.
Also to let them learn that girls can also do great things just like men when given chance?
You can help us break the cycle of discrimination
Girls can improve their lives and bring about change in their community and society in general—but only if they are given the chance You can help girls in Kenya believe in a future defined by their skills and ambitions not their gender
Support our campaign for Girls Rights in Kenya Contact Val Wilson
