KEEPING AKILI GIRLS IN SCHOOL THROUGH SCHOLARSHIPS

Dear Friends,

Can you believe that we are only three months to 2023! It is about 2 years since we started this campaign to bring girls back to school after Covid 19 on August 31st 2020. Girls all over the world were facing insurmountable challenges and organizations like  Riley Orton Foundation (ROF) were barely able to support our beneficiaries. Most of us just wished that 2020 would end soon and we couldn't wait to welcome 2021 with so much positivity and hope. 

57 donations down the line, you have helped us raise an incredible $5072 to provide school fees and scholastic materials for needy rural girls. With this gift and others from our partners, we have given high school scholarships to over 45 underprivileged girls, provided school uniforms and menstrual hygiene products to over 4,535 girls and boys and held leadership and mentorship sessions with over 1500 adolescent girls. We have also built a STEM school, sunk and repaired community water points in rural Kanyawegi Village and hired staff to support our work. Our girls have stayed in school and focussed on their studies uninterrupted by frequent absenteeism to get school fees as was the case in the past. Your gifts have also ensured that girls go through their menstruation normally and in dignity without having to stay at home because of period poverty and stigma. 

Phemy is one of the girls in our scholarship program. She sat for her primary school exit exams (KCPE) in 2021/2022 at Akili school and scored 314 out of the possible 500 marks. Despite her good performance, her single  mother who sells fish/sardines in Obunga slum to support her family could not afford to pay her secondary school fees. ROF awarded her a scholarship to join a local day school although a boarding school would have been preferable given her family background. Luckily, our friends at Ndiru Mixed Secondary School where we have been distributing school uniforms to needy students heard her story and offered to enroll her at the boarding school at half the cost of full tuition fees. Through the scholarship fund, ROF is now able to pay $120 yearly (instead of the $300 paid by other regular students), provide her with school uniforms as well as psychosocial support/mentorship,  allowing her to concentrate on her studies and realize her dream of becoming a doctor. We deeply value these partnerships with local schools which go a long way in complementing our work and enabling ROF to sustainably keep needy girls in school. 

Millicent on the other hand  joined Akili school in 2018 in grade four when she could hardly read and understand a sentence, this affected her performance and interactions with other students. Her joining the debate club  boosted her confidence to interact with her peers since she had gained more comprehension and vocabulary skills.The low student/teacher ratio of 15: 1 increased contact time with teachers and this boosted her performance to an average of 260 marks. Our goal is to have 80% of our students scoring above 350 marks in the national exams and 100% transition of all students to high school.

We also give girls bicycles to cycle to school since school going girls are at a high risk of engaging in transactional sex with motorcycle taxi operators/riders because of long distances they have to cover to school. The girls also use the bicycles to fetch water and run other errands at home. It enables them to complete their tasks in time and study or do homework. We are committed to ensuring girls have access to quality education to reach their full potential by providing them with bicycles to cycle to school.

Looking back, we have achieved so much together and we cannot thank you enough for partnering with us to  provide holistic education and promote gender equality in STEM education to ensure  girls and a community with the agency to realize their full potential.

Your support has enabled us to remain focussed on our mission to alleviate poverty among marginalized girls and communities in Kenya through an integrated and coordinated approach that addresses holistic education, health, economic empowerment and life skills education to provide beneficiaries the agency to make sustainable changes for self- sufficiency.

Our goal is to raise $6000 by the end of the year 2022 to keep more girls in school and organize STEM/leadership camps for disadvantaged rural girls to inspire them to take up STEM careers in order to  reduce the gender and skills gap in STEM, increase employment of women and spur economic growth.

Thank you very much for your continued support. God bless you richly.