Establish Girls' Empowerment Centre in Rural Kenya

“I truly learnt much from our exchange visit at the Kibera School for Girls under Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO) in Kibera Slums in Nairobi. I was impressed of the community based programs run by the organization, some of which we can adopt into our programming. As Girls steering Committee we are going to establish a Girl-led Safe Spaces in the 3 major slums in Kisumu to curb the increasing number of Sexual and Gender Based Violence cases in the region according to recently released statistics.” Milka Ofwa, Chair-Girls Steering Committee.

During the period of June-September 2017 NIGEE have had the following activities:

• So far we have reached 305 girls at the GEC (90 girls - computer classes, 155 girls - hairdressing and 60 girls - tailoring) with the skills training since the inception of the program.
• During this period, we were able to enroll 100 new girls. Presently, 276 girls (41 – computer classes, 158 – hairdressing and 27 – tailoring) are undergoing vocational training at GEC; 49 have completed training.
• As part of enhancing our Girl-led programming, the members of the Girls Steering Committee (GSC) participated in a 2 day exchange visit at Kiberia School for Girls under SHOFCO, a local organization located in Kibera Slums, Nairobi. The visit was aimed at providing a platform for the girls to benchmark and borrow a leaf that would help inform our girl-led programming. The GSC members are in the process of developing the new five year girl-led strategic plan (2018-2022).
• Construction of our Girls Empowerment Centre which commenced in June is ongoing and the ground floor is almost complete. We still believe that once the building is completed will touch the lives of hundreds of teen mothers with their children each year by preparing them to continue with their education before transitioning them to regular schools.
• In our Kuria anti-FGM project the field coordinator visited all the 16 schools where the 60 FGM survivor’s beneficiaries are studying to check if all the students are in school and are continuing with their education. Follow up on their school attendance register and performance for all girls has been done on a regular basis to assist in case they experience challenges.

The girls’ experience at SHOFCO exchange Visit and their planned programs:

Looking at their faces, one could realize the magnitude of joy. The visit surely meant a lot to the members of girls’ steering committee. Being the first beneficiaries of the NIGEE education scholarship and empowerment through the girls empowerment centre (GEC), the girls had vowed to empower and mentor their peers. As part of realizing their desired goal, they proposed to visit the Kiberia School for girls as part of the benchmarking and learning process. The visit was dubbed “Empowered girls, Empower girls”. From the visit, the girls’ steering committee had the following experiences to share about what they learnt and some of the activities that they will adopt into their programs through a well scripted strategy plan which they are currently working on.

The visit to Nairobi took place from September 21-22, 2017 and 10 members of the girls’ steering committee represented NIGEE. The girls were taken through different programs’ components and they later visited project sites. The girls were impressed by the best practises and holistic approach used by the organization in their programming. Sharing their experiences after the trip the girls had the following to say;

“It was a great experience at SHOFCO, personally I was impressed by what I saw over there. As girls steering committee member I think we can establish a childcare and early childhood development and education (ECDE) centre at GEC and within the NIGEE bridge centres. This will host toddlers of the young women attending classes at our centre and nearby formal schools.” Lucy Masika, Girls Steering Committee member.

There is a great demand for Childcare and ECDE centre at the GEC to accommodate and provide a safe place for the children of the teen mothers undertaking vocational training in hairdressing, dressmaking and computer studies at the GEC and to those already linked to formal schools. So far the centre host over 20 young women and their kids.

While sharing her experience after the visit, Milka Ofwa alluded that the visit is an eye opener to them and they are planning to fast-track the strengthening of the sexual and gender based violence (SGBV) prevention and recovering mechanism in major slums in Kisumu City to help mitigate the increasing cases of SGBV cases in the area. “I truly learnt much from our exchange visit at Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO) in Kibera Slums in Nairobi. I was really impressed with their community based SGBV prevention and response program ran by community volunteers, some of which we can replicate in our program areas. As Girls steering Committee we are going to establish Girl-led Safe Spaces in the 3 major slums in Kisumu to curb the increasing number of Sexual and Gender Based Violence cases in the region according to recently released statistics.” Milka Ofwa, Chair-Girls Steering Committee.

NIGEE seek to establish a Girl-Led safe spaces in Obunga, Manyatta and Nyalenda slums. Already NIGEE has bridge centres in the mentioned slums which serve as a transition hub for young teen mothers who would like to resume formal learning.  

The girls’ steering committee members have unanimously decided that they are going to establish a Girl-led safe spaces in the slums of Kisumu, strength the SGBV referral path, establish a child care and ECDE Centre at the GEC.