Empower & Educate the Girls of Rural Kisumu

Our Future Generation

Latifah volunteered during one of the Menstrual Health and Hygiene sessions to demonstrate to her peers how to put a pad on. And she did it with so much confidence! Also, she wants to become the President of our country when she grows up.

Apart from our future leader, we also met future neurosurgeons, doctors, fashion designers, engineers, lawyers, pilots and you name it! We had everyone.

During these workshops, we were able to empower 102 teenage girls (and their mothers) with sanitary packs made up of 2 panties, 2 tissue rolls, 1kg of soap and a re-usable sanitary kit that contains 5 pads that will last them for 12-18 months! Each mother also received a small food pack that would serve their families 15 meals.

Our team was so inspired by the many stories and experiences that were shared during theses sessions by the mothers, girls, teachers and our speakers. Stories and experiences that are breaking barriers and empowering our future generation of girls.

The highlight of these workshops was when a mother approached our team after her session and asked, “Can I bring my other daughters for this talk? I think it will really boost their confidence and self-esteem.”'

Tracking Progress and Growth

Our Sanitary Pads Program is designed to address the gender equity gap at schools that is often caused by lack of access to sanitary pads. Over the past few years, as this program has grown and reached over 542 girls, we have been thinking about how we can track and capture the result of this program for our donors.

We take accountability very seriously at RKF and work hard to achieve the goals we set out at the beginning of every year. And with our new tracker graphic, you will be able to track the progress we make as we make it!

So how does it work? It’s quite simple… every time a girl receives a sanitary pad kit, the pad is filled with numbers in the respective quarter she receives it. And as more girls receive kits over the year, the pad “wings”, which represent empowerment, keep growing bigger and bigger.

Pad trivia: Did you know that RKF primarily provides re-usable kits to ensure that girls have long-term access to pads and to reduce the impact of disposable pads on the environment?

COVID Relief Update

Over 108,000 meals served in the past year through our COVID Relief Program and more than KES 2.5million (~US$23,200) in savings generated for vulnerable communities in Kisumu County.

When we began this journey, we just wanted to help and play a role in mitigating the suffering within our communities. As we spoke to families, we kept learning about the harsh impact they were facing as a result of an economic downturn resulting from this pandemic. So, we kept pushing ourselves, through various ups and downs, month after month, to repurpose our programs and keep this relief effort going.

And here we are... 108,000 meals to over 1,000 families, 618 offline education packs to students during lockdown and 175 sanitary kits for at-risk teenage girls.

An impact story we want to share that really touched us came from Liz, a 13 year old student who shared with us that on the day her mother received a food pack from The Rahul Kotak Foundation, they had absolutely no food left at home and the food pack kept them going for 10 days. As Kisumu is currently experiencing a surge in cases and facing the impact of strict containment measures, we are reaching out to even more families. If you would like to continue supporting our relief efforts, please consider making a donation.

We would also like to honor the generosity of donors near and afar, the resilience of our team, our incredible interns and volunteers and everyone who has shared a kind, encouraging word in support. In the midst of this pandemic, our organization also marked its fifth anniversary.

Upcoming July Bonus Day

Mark the date: 14^th July 2021. July Bonus Day is an upcoming fundraising campaign by GlobalGiving where all donations from $100 and above will be matched as follows:
15% match on donations from $100 - $499
30% match on donations from $500 - $749
50% match on donations from $750 - $1,000

There will be $400,000 matching funds available and we’re counting on donations from this campaign to keep our COVID Relief efforts going until the end of 2021.