NYANZA INITIATIVE FOR GIRLS' EDUCATION & EMPOWERMENT (NIGEE)

NIGEE envisions a society and a future of self-determining and self-reliant girls and women. To achieve this, we have a mission to leverage community and other resources to equip girls with knowledge and skills for productive and fulfilled adult life. The Initiative identifies and taps into community resources to support girls' education and training as a foundation for self-reliance and self-determination in and beyond basic needs. Since initiation, our goal has been to generate local resources and return back to school girls who dropped out mainly due to early pregnancy and child marriage. NIGEE's core values and mandate are to protect, promote and ensure that all rights of wome... read more NIGEE envisions a society and a future of self-determining and self-reliant girls and women. To achieve this, we have a mission to leverage community and other resources to equip girls with knowledge and skills for productive and fulfilled adult life. The Initiative identifies and taps into community resources to support girls' education and training as a foundation for self-reliance and self-determination in and beyond basic needs. Since initiation, our goal has been to generate local resources and return back to school girls who dropped out mainly due to early pregnancy and child marriage. NIGEE's core values and mandate are to protect, promote and ensure that all rights of women and girls are respected. We focus specifically on the rights to education and sexual and reproductive health. The right to education is a bridge to other rights, and education gives young women choices and the power to decide over their own lives and bodies. Indeed, the cascading benefits of female education to girls, their families and community underscores the imperative of supporting girls' education and secondary education is particularly critical for breaking the cycle of poverty and addressing a host of other indicators of poor health. NIGEE employs two advocacy approaches: Human Rights Based approach (conventional) and Societal Responsibility approach (crafted by NIGEE's Patron). We believe that making our community a safe place for girls and women is everyone's responsibility. To support our activities, we focus on mobilization of local resources through social entrepreneurship. This is our pillar to sustainability and ownership; external resources are supplemental. Through championing local resource mobilization initiatives, we aim at facilitating sustainable community-owned educational model to enhance school re-enrolment, retention, attendance and learning outcomes by girls who resume school after dropping out. For the girls who are in our program and those who also dropped out of school due to teen pregnancy in their communities, we plan to initiate retreats during school holidays were we provide education, information sharing and contraceptives so that they do not continue to have more children.