Mission Statement
Akili Dada is an international Non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring that the next generation of Kenya's leaders includes women from diverse economic backgrounds. We achieve this by:
. Providing scholarships and leadership training to bright young women scholars from impoverished families.
. Connecting these future leaders to a growing network of peers and professional Kenyan women who serve as mentors.
We believe that:
. Justice is served when there is a diversity of leaders' voices at the policy making table.
. That access to education and leadership training is critical to poor women's ability to participate in the policy making process as leaders.
Through these efforts Akili Dada is creating a core of educated and empowered young women who are positioned to be part of the next generation of Kenyan leaders.
Description
Our competitive and comprehensive scholarships enable bright but poor women access to education. We target potential leaders who would otherwise be forced to enter into early marriage or the low-wage workforce soon after completing primary school. In addition, our network of inspirational women leaders provides Akili Dada scholars with exceptional opportunities to develop their leadership skills.
There are many ways to address the dearth of women in leadership positions, but the scholarship and mentorship approach offers maximum impact at a minimum cost. Our competitive and comprehensive scholarships eliminate the bottleneck created by prohibitively expensive secondary school fees, giving bright but poor women access to education and eventually to leadership positions. Creating links within and across generations of women leaders provides Akili Dada scholars with exceptional opportunities to be inspired by other women and to develop their leadership skills.
We believe that meaningful, enduring success will be embodied by cohorts of bright and well educated young women who will be networked with each other and with mentors in their chosen fields.
Our impact is most easy measured by the number of Akili Dada scholars graduating from secondary school and their performance at university and beyond. We anticipate that, over time, Akili Dada scholars will excel in fields ranging from politics, policy-making, engineering, medicine, the arts, and journalism. The sky will be the limit.
