Description
Our Objectives
- To create awareness among parents and communities on educational rights of girl child.
- To improve gender equity between girls and boys.
- To create a cross-cultural interaction between girls in Homa Bay and their counterparts in other parts of the world.
- To enhance talents, innovation and leadership qualities among girls.
- To enhance enrolment, retention, transition and performance rates of girls in primary, secondary and college levels of education in Homa Bay County.
What we do
In order to address the gaps in girl child education, we are implementing the following projects:
- Girl child Education Awareness Campaign:
We do this through parent’s awareness meetings on opportunities for girls in the current world and the need to take the girls to school. This brings a sense of responsibility on the part of parents to ensure that their girls are enrolled in school and supported to complete.
Mentorship and Counseling
There are talented girls who by virtue of outstanding abilities are capable of high performance and they require differentiated educational programs and/or services beyond those normally provided by the regular school program in order to realize their contribution to self and society.
We create an opportunity for the girls to interact with the environment with remarkably high levels of achievement and creativity, through counseling, coaching and role modeling with an aim of shaping their career aspirations. Girls are identified with the support of professionals through the following areas:
- General intellectual ability
- Specific academic aptitude or performing arts
- Creative or productive thinking and leadership ability.
School Linkages
For the purpose of acquiring appropriate learning and exposure, we strive to create a cross-cultural interaction between girls in Homa Bay and their counterparts in other parts of the world. The program is envisaged to be done through established connections between specific schools locally and overseas, especially in the US, UK and Australian, which are English speaking nations. These will be through Facebook, tweeter and emails.
Currently, the program is setting the stage for the School Linkages, in 3 primary schools by sponsoring respective number of teachers, one from each school, to undergo training on information communication. Some of the benefits to the local girls will be to learn on future career selection, strengthen their ego and charisma in presentation, communication skills and understanding of other cultures among other things.
Post-Primary School Scholarship program
We support girls from poor families to attain post-primary school education by paying for them secondary and collages education fees. The organization has projected an initial target of 50 girls in this category with an increase of 25% on annual basis by the end of the year 2014. The percentage might increase in the long run as we anticipate girls’ retention and graduation at primary level due to our interventions through girl child school enrolment and retention campaign.
In order to sustain this initiative, the scholarship program is integrated with village savings and loan model of micro financing, which revolves around supporting the formation and capacity building of village-based savings and loan associations. The capacity building will also cover packages on selection, planning and management of business/microenterprises. This will, in the long-term reduce vulnerabilities and expand economic viable ventures for the families like farming, livestock rearing and other income generating activities(IGAs) to enable them meet educational expenses for their children, especially the girl child.
The project targets about 400 poor families in 10 communities (Villages) in Ndhiwa Sub-County, as participants within 53 interest groups.
Vocational Trainings and Support
The organization is currently seeking funds to establish Learning Center, which will also serve as a venue for vocational trainings. The trainings will target girls who cannot make it beyond primary level of education due to low grades attained at the primary school level or those who have dropped out as a result of pregnancy and cannot resume formal education after delivery. Different skills like hair dressing, tailoring and catering will be provided. In addition, they will be trained on other economic empowerment skills like group savings and credit, life planning, basic information technology skills and entrepreneurship management. Those who graduate from these trainings will be supported with working tools and initial capital to enable them start off as young entrepreneurs in their areas of specialization.
Some will be retained to offer trainings to subsequent lots and make product to be sold to sustain the project.
Reproductive health and hygiene
We organize trainings on reproductive health including menstrual management and abstinence from early sexual debut. To carry this further, we are currently working on a partnership with K-MET; an Organization with expertise in making re-usable towels, with locally available materials, that is washable, absorbent and affordable as compared to disposable pads. Their roll will be to offer trainings to some of the girls in vocational program on how to make the pads so that they will be available locally at a very affordable cost for the girls
'Light A Book’ Solar Project
The project is aimed at providing 500 girls with green source of light for studies on one-girl-light basis over a period of 3 years. This is to address the issues of low performance by creating an opportunity for additional study time at night and usage of environment friendly and safer lamps compared to smoky kerosene lanterns.
Child Protection Campaigns
The organization advocates for the protection of children in the society. We organize community awareness meetings in different villages where we work in the county where men, women and the youth freely discuss issues on Children Rights and Protection. We are targeting to facilitate establishment of Child Rights Clubs in 5 schools by the end of the year 2014. Our aim is to reduce early marriages, child labor, and corporal punishment in schools and to address other related child exploitation issues.
