Mentoring 16 orphan and needy girls in Kenya

March 2013

Nairobi Kenya

Dear Global Giving Friends,

Two weeks ago, I visited one of the our mentees who joined university in October to establish how the mentorship helped her to fit in the university.  Esther, is grateful that she built strong values and was  introduced to gender and human (particularly) women rights issues at SAWA. She shares a room with a girl from North Eastern Kenya, and has been able to adjust living with her because SAWA helped her to embrace diversity.  In her own words "I never valued people from other communities, I stereotyped them, I regarded women from disadvantaged communities as primative and would not have imagined friendship with them leave alone living together.  At SAWA I was made to understand that we are all equal.  I liked the Girl Effect lessons and know I can make a change in a girl's life.  I no longer consider myself poor and disadvantaged because I was empowered to see my strengths."

These were powerful words for a rural girl who spent only two months with us.  Her perspectives speaks volumes of the impact of our program.  Esther formed a group of eight girls from her university  to meet together on Sunday afternoons to discuss leadership issues.  She reminded me that SAWA inspired her to register as a voter and she is eager to vote come the general elections on March 4th.  She also inspired others to register as voters too, bearing in mind that the youth have in the past years taken a back seat as far as this is concerned.  Esther had this to say "We discuss the qualities we want of our leaders in our meetings using the wisdom I gained from SAWA.  I am the group chair, and I coordinate the group using principles acquired during the program"

Agnes is also another young girl that SAWA is mentoring.  In early January, she participated in our program for three days and the impact was overwhelming.  She drastically acquired superb computer skills which she uses to communicate particularly with other SAWA girls that she met.  She plans to continue with her mentorship with us when she breaks for her long holiday in May this year.

Currently we are mentoring two girls that Caroline, our full time officer is training  on computer skills and business skills.

With my sincere gratitude for your support in this effort to improve the opportunities for young girls,

Catherine Kaimenyi

Project Leader