By Mansi Kotak | Co-Founder and CEO
Dear Donor,
Greetings from rainy Kisumu!
Thank you so much for your continued support to our project! In our last report we shared an update from the work we started in Seme Sub County. In this report we share an update from our continued Girls’ Empowerment workshops within Nyalenda, especially with the girls and mums of Central Primary School’s first every Junior Secondary Cohort. We also provide an update about our girl scholars for 2023.
Workshops for Girls and Mums
Since December 2022, we have continued to provide re-usable sanitary pad kits and menstrual health and management training through our Girls’ Empowerment Workshops to 54 new students. Through these workshops, we engaged the students of Central Primary’s first cohort of Junior Secondary and their mothers in talks about the importance of self-care, menstrual hygiene, basic sex education and teenage pregnancies.
These discussions led to some insights from our beneficiaries. One such insight came from Marion who shared with us that she felt empowered to teach her sisters and friends about what she learnt at the workshop so that they could also benefit from all the information she received. Many mothers echoed her sentiments and shared feedback with our team to consider widening the circle of beneficiaries to reach more girls and women from their respective communities.
Another insight came from a beneficiary who wishes to remain anonymous: she shared that she really felt empowered to stand up and say NO to anyone who made any uncomfortable contact with her. She said she learnt for the first time how important it was to stand up for herself and her friends.
Each girl who attended the workshops received a re-usable sanitary kit that will last them12-18 months and contains: a Girl Talk booklet, a bucket, 5 re-usable sanitary pads, 2 panties, 2 toilet rolls and 1kg of soap. Each kit costs ~$10 and will help girls and their mothers save money every month from having to buy disposable pads. Each re-usable Sanitary Kit is the equivalent of 200 disposable pads.
Scholarships for two girls who are beneficiaries of this program
When we started our organization in 2016, our focus was to ensure students could access early education so that they were set up for a strong academic journey. Over the years, we have learnt of the various obstacles that many students living in marginalized communities face. One of the biggest obstacles is school fees to attend a good secondary school (preferably boarding) after completing their primary level education. After a lot of ground work over the past year, this year we were able to launch the Scholarship Fund with the support of some private donors and your donations to support 4 students for the next four years of their secondary school education. We are so excited for their futures and the impact of this program.
Two past beneficiaries of the Girls’ Empowerment Program and re-usable Sanitary Kits, Mary and Naomi, were recipients of the scholarships. They both finished their KCPE exams in December and we were able to give them the necessary support to continue with their secondary school education early this year. We are really excited to catch up with them in May and share an update on how they’re faring at their respective new schools.
GlobalGiving Badges
Every year, GlobalGiving awards different badges to non-profits on its platform. These badges are trust indicators that give you, the donor, an insight into how our non-profit is performing and being perceived on the platform. We are thrilled to share that for the 4th year in a row, we are one of a select few organizations that has received all six badges on offer by GlobalGiving.
These badges are awarded to non-profits to recognize their efforts in different areas. RKF has received badges for being a top-ranked, highly effective and vetted organization. We are also site-visit verified which means a member of the GlobalGiving team has visited our projects and verified the work we are doing. We were also selected as a Staff Favourite and Project of the Month!
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Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
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