Establish Girls' Empowerment Centre in Rural Kenya

Since NIGEE programs seek to improve outcomes for a wide range of vulnerable girls,in the past three months we really looked at addressing underlying economic and social constraints surrounding the girl herself.

 “Safe Spaces” that we already have  are insufficient to lead to sustained changes for vulnerable girls. We continued to engaged the broader community at large to discuss norms on gender and violence that won’t change without engaging those that influence girls’ lives.

NIGEE ensured that efforts to empower girls and improve their health and wellbeing is addressed social norms at the girl, household, school, and community levels and this has realy worked for us as our theory of change..

We realized during the community engagements that pervasive poverty can limit the success of underlying economic constraints at the household level may need to be addressed in order to see longer term change for girls now that our center has promised sustainability.

Below are messages from the girls we have taken through vocational training at the Girls empowerment center;

“I always love it when i can tell change stories of my life to people.In this way i let them know that i do not in any way wish to diminish donors contributions but that we recognize them and the strides they have made to make it better for us. It also just pumps up the chest a tad bit more, to know that these GIANTS walk amongst us!“

“While my list of platforms is a metre long, one name stands out; GlobalGiving,i can now provide for my family and not depend on men out there “.

We are almost completing the hidden map to a place we consider home; we will ensure the neighborhood communities around the new empowerment center feel the positive change we have come with among young girls and women.

In 2019, we have been able/still continue to help give second chance to 62 out of school girls in our Scholarship project through leveraging community resources.

Below are some of the girls’ reactions:

“Because we enjoy our vocational skills sessions, on behalf of my fellow beneficiaries, we request our compassionate donors to help us with a quick Christmas fundraising gift so that we are able to have the grills/rails fixed along the class corridors that are upstairs to avoid accidents that might occur and ensure learning is safe for us”.

 “Dear all our Donors wishing you a merry christmas and a happy new year 2020, thanking you for your incredible support in 2019, our best year yet”.

The Girls Empowerment Center safe space/hostel continues to offer a temporary haven for girls and young women(including persons with disability) who have been exploited or sexually abused and are in immediate danger; we provide ongoing counseling and investigation with a goal of reconciling them with their families. 

Milestone achievements in influencing and facilitating policy development on Sexual Gender Based Violence (SGBV) for Kisumu County to protect and champion the rights of children and young women.

We would love to give you all a tour so you can meet some of the beneficiaries who are now with us. We love to show off our incomplete comfy home, and the girls enjoy meeting visitors. One or two might even show you what they can do with their computers and sewing machines.

“We have recurring donors who donate to the empowerment center monthly, we really appreciate your generosity and we appeal to all other supporters to become recurring donors so that we can reach our target of $100,000”.

Truthfully, we could not do this without you! We, and those we serve, sincerely appreciate your generosity.