Help 50 Maasai girls get education, not husbands

Elizabeth’s elder brother rescued her from Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) at a tender age of 7 years because he saw potential in her.   He took Elizabeth to a girls’ boarding school where she stayed without seeing her family for three years because she had to hide to evade FGM and the possibility of early marriage. 

The head teacher of the girl’s boarding school introduced Elizabeth to Nenkashe Education Centre (NEC) where NEC made plans to counsel Elizabeth and reconcile her to her family. 

Elizabeth was a bright student who recorded good grades in school and this enabled her to perform well in primary and secondary school as well as qualify for university education.

Elizabeth will be 20 years old next week.  She will be celebrating her birthday at Kirinyaga University where she is a second year student in very good academic standing. 

She is half way to complete her course of study in Epidemiology, which is a study of disease patterns that affect humans.  She believes that her choice of the field of study is relevant and important in our current setting where we are coming out of a devastating pandemic that we saw in the form of Covid-19.

We are very proud of Elizabeth’s success and we share the pride with her family and our sponsors who have supported her to make her dream possible.

Six years ago, we introduced you to our champion, Teresiah, who at the age of 16 was running marathons, winning awards and doing well in school. This was before her family member learnt there are plans for Teresiah to undergo circumcision when she was around 9 years old.

Her close relative knew that if he wouldn’t do anything, Teresiah would go through the circumcision rite and would soon be given away in marriage just like her older sister. This is what he has always seen happen in poor families and he believed that there is a better way for Teresiah.

He hoped that if the young girl goes to school, she may be able to care for herself and her family better. So he reported the matter to the local area chief and that is how Teresiah was sponsored by Nenkashe Education Centre in 2009.

This month in January of 2023, Teresiah will be graduating from Isinya Technical Vocational Centre with a certificate in Beauty Therapy and Hairdressing. A salon in Kajiado town has hired Teresiah as an employee to receive and serve customers for a salary. She is now able to support herself and her family as she gains more experience in her trade.

In the future, she prays that she will start her own salon and continue offering services in beauty therapy and hairdressing. Thank you for making a better life for Teresiah.

We wish all our sponsors a Happy and a Prosperous New Year.

7 years of consistent donor support for Nenkashe Education Centre has birthed Nenkashe Primary School, the first primary school in Inkiwanjani village.

We established Nenkashe Primary School in January 2022 and registered it with the Ministry of Education.  The new school follows the new government enforced Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) where learning is based on the needs and potential of individual learners under flexible framework and parameters that move and shift according to the learner’s needs.

The government introduced CBC system to replace the 8-4-4 education system because it rightly felt that most Kenyans wanted their education system to promote application rather than mere acquisition of knowledge, which is the perceived focus of 8-4-4 education system. The government has posted four teachers to Nenkashe Primary School to demonstrate their support for the school and the new CBC curriculum. 

However, CBC is expensive to implement and we have faced many infrastructural challenges.

• We currently have 105 students enrolled in Pre-Primary 1 to grade five. 

• Our five classrooms are temporary iron sheet structures that need to be replace with permanent building.

• Our two toilets serve pupils, teachers and school visitors.  We need more toilets.

• We have one 5,000-litre tank that collects rainwater and when that is all used up, we replenish the tank by buying water delivered by commercial water trucks.

• Teachers operate from Kajiado town because of lack of teacher housing.

• The school is partially fenced because we could only afford to fence a small section.  We need to fence off the entire primary school property.

Our urgent need for now is to build a permanent Grade 6 classroom for use in January 2023 when the new academic year begins.  We will raise special project funding requests through GlobalGiving for these needs and pray that you will support us bring Nenkashe Primary School up to standard. 

Thank you for your support and prayers.

Three years ago on April 2019, I wrote a report about a courageous and bright girl called Janet who overcame despair after a horrific accident that left both of her legs amputated.  Janet lost her legs when she was only 7 years old.   

I met up with her again at a Life Skills Seminar Nenkashe Education Centre organized for the girls between April 4 and April 7, 2022.  She walks comfortably with her restructured prosthetic legs without the aid of crutches.

Janet has made tremendous progress in the last 3 years and the girls were happy to have her join the seminar so that they can interact and bond after a long period of being apart.   

Shortly after graduating in December 2018, Janet joined the prestigious Nairobi University and after completing her 3rd year, she was elected student leader and took oath of office as Special Needs Representative to serve students under the University of Nairobi Student Association (UNSA).

Janet is well aware that her current role as a student leader is good preparation for her political future, should she decide to take that route.  It is quite common in Kenya that student leaders hone their leadership skills on campus later join national politics to represent their wider constituents.

Janet is studying to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology.  She said she chose Geology because Kajiado County is rich in minerals that we need to mine to produce local products and build our economy.  Janet is due to graduate in September 2022.

Nenkashe Education Centre highly appreciates our sponsors who give generously to enable us to bring hope and positive change in the lives of needy, courageous and bright young people like Janet.  May God continue to bless you!

We finally had the opportunity to promote positive self-worth among 18 young sponsored girls in December 2021.  This was long overdue, as we had postponed the seminar several times due to Covid-19 restrictions.

On December 27th – 29th, we held a 3-day Life Skills Seminar at Kajiado Children’s Home for the girls as they were on a 10-day Christmas holidays break from school.

The goal of the seminar was to promote positive self-worth among the girls as they cope with peer pressure, low self-esteem, effects of Covid-19 and exposure to drugs in schools. 

The seminar provided an excellent opportunity for the girls to bond, reflect and improve the course of their lives.  As each group presented their challenges, it became evident that most of them had low self-esteem.  The facilitator defined self-esteem as “self-worth”.   She took the girls through factors what lower one’s self esteem and factors that improves one’s self-esteem. 

The second part of the seminar focused on good qualities of a focused girl and outlined the following desirable qualities that the girls were encouraged to embrace:

      i.        Deliberate –be sure you are clear and persistent about who you are.

     ii.        Intelligent – this is about knowledge. Be aware of your emotional patterns. Turning obstacles in opportunities.

    iii.        Humble – life is not all about you. It composes of others too. Never see yourself above others.

    iv.        Diligence – This is to be strong and assured in who you are.  Being graceful even in the midst of a challenge and ethical manner (you are self-assured).

     v.        Kindness –This is how you treat, think and speak about others.

    vi.        Composure – this is based on self-control, without it you can be easily manipulated.

  vii.        Courage – being ready to dare in life. Choosing your dreams.

We thank our sponsors for enabling Nenkashe Education Centre to hold life skills seminars that are a great success to improving the girls’ self-esteem and setting them up to develop good qualities and become focused young women.