1000 Kibera slum girls empowered to excel

Polycom Developmen Project creates platfroms for girls to share about issues that they cannot talk about, these are mostly very painful secrets.

Once of the girls we are working to mentor recently wrote, "My mother and my step father hates me, I never understood why until people started telling me that I resemble my biological father and that the man married to my mother is not my real father. They told me who my father was and I took my time to go look for him. I was happy when I found him, but he rejected me and told me to go to my mother who ran away with another man, he said that I should never go back to him or else he will harm me. When my mum discovered that I went see my real father, she hated me even more. She started telling me alot of nasty stuff, she says I smell bad and that I am ugly like my father, that my presence is bad omen to her beautiful family".

Most girls neither love nor trust themselves due to such experiences, they rely on people especially men to tell them about their beauty. Polycom Development Project through your support have developed over 3000 bookmarks with powerful messages of love and self appreciation for the girls. They feel encouraged after reading the messages, which they are encouraged to read everyday, or any time they feel low. This  has played a huge role in giving hope to girls who feel dejected. 

The girls become ascertive and do not allow the intimidation to get through to them. Thank you so much for your continued support, lets affirm more girls before you loose them! 

Your support continue to make our work shine day by day, we continue to attract local and international attention. Polycom Development Project was lucky to host Ashley Judd, Hollywood celebrity who is also UNFPA's Global Goodwill Ambassador. Eventhough United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) works with so many organization within Nairobi and Kenya as a whole, Polycom was selected to host the Global Peace Ambassador.

300 adolescent girls and 60 adolescent boys attended the meeting where they were inspired and encouraged. The goodwill Ambassador danced and share about her life with the girls. "Challenges are no reason for one to give up in life, the hudles one face in life should make them strong than ever."

Polycom members have been invited to participate in local events and to join leadership & development Committees within the community and beyond, we are now members of Fight Inequality Alliance, the 3rd network which have admitted us in the year 2018. The bonus day was also boosted by the visibity our good work which continue not just to change the lives of women/girls but boys as well. We are leaving no one behind.

One of our girls use our local crowd funding platform Mchanga to raise money to enable her participate in an international Conference - Women Sports Leadership Program (WSLA). We continue to excel through this platform by day.

Long Live GlobalGiving!

We recently had a training on resource mobilization which will greatly help the organizational to reach more girls in Kibera and most importantly have a positive impact on their lives for them to realize their full potential. The day of the African child is a day celebrated world wide, we took this opportunity to sensitize the members of the comunity on the need to keep our girls in school and also ensure that the school is a safe space. The event attracted 1030 participants, community engagement is a key way of keeping girls in school.

We also had the candidates forum with 257 girls who are preparing to sit for their final examinations. Girls were asked to attach themselves with their mentors to walk them through their candidature progress, and even after primary education.Each of the girls received a packet of pads, 2 panties and they had refreshments on this particular day. We have however been able to distribute 2045 sanitary towels in the month of June to girls in 50 schools.

Thank you for being a part of keeping this girls in school every cent makes a difference. We boast of the love that girls share about as a result of support they are getting at the organisation which ultimately trickles down to the support we are getting from donors through GlobalGiving.

Kasudi's mama died when she was only 6 years old, my wonderful neighbour in the slums who would talk so loudly and gave the best to her children. I lost touch with Kasudi shortly after her mama's death. She reappeared in January, very desperate to go to school, she is 17 years old, late for her high school education, she had to repeat class two time because there was no money for her school fees. Her story touched me, I support girls, this is my girl, how would I say no to her quest for education.

Bit by bit through your donations 15 girls have joined high school in 2018, and are pursuing their dreams, they want to break the cycle of poverty in their home. The money was a lot, but we managed together because fo your little by little donation. We raised over 1,000 dollars that got the girls to school. Let us keep the spirit alive team, together we can make the world a better place for people to live in .

All 320 girls from the 17 partner schools completed their final examination without a hitch. (15 YEAR OLD MISS EXAMS TO BE WITH HER LOVER) This was the headlines in our Daily Newspapers. Our society is still very low to listening to the needs of girls and working with them towards their prosperity. Polycom Development Project using our slogan G-Pende meaning Love Yourself, dedicate her resources in ensuring that girls understands the importance of education. This is the only sure way of breaking the circle of poverty in their lives. 15 very needy girls out these 320 have already applied for education scholarship through Polycom Development Project. Can we let them down after all the encouragements, NO, with the little each one gives, our girls should join high school.

Look at these figures if you want to understand the difference your contribution makes in the lives of these girls. In 2017, we had no grant at all for our adolescent girls programs despite the numerous grant proposal we wrote to different organizations. We understand that donor funding is shrinking, but that does not mean that the needs in the community are going away, it only means that we must work harder and dig deeper into our pockets to make it happen.

1. 510 adolescent girls benefited from the Saturday weekly forums on Being Yourself, Being Empowered, Being Healthy and Being Money Savvy, no wonder there were no reports of school drop outs. 2 became pregnant but continued coming to school through our encouragment.

2. 5840 Sanitary towels were distributed to needy girls from Kibera Slums

3. 225 girls participated actively in sports activities

4. 12 girls received education scholarships under the EDUCATE HER PROJECT

5. 1020 Litres of detergents were distributed to clean the toilets

The are just but a clock of what your money did. We are approaching #GivingTuesday, kindly save 20 dollars for Kibera Girls, we love you always.

(www.polycomgirls.org)