Help 50 Maasai girls get education, not husbands

Thank you for helping us support future leaders!

This is an opportune time to share with you how your contributions are changing lives positively in the villages where we work. Today I share with you the life of young girl from Lake Baringo who is working hard to prepare herself for a better life in the future. Her name is Viola and she is a third year student at Kimng’orom Girls High School.

Viola was brought up by her single parent mother who has 4 other children. They live in a harsh, dry region with a high level of poverty where the water has high fluoride content and that is the reason why Viola and many other children from her community have brown discoloured teeth. The main economic activity is livestock keeping, especially goats.

One of the ways we support the community around Lake Baringo is to look out for talent among the youth and support them to nurture leadership skills. Although Viola comes from a poor community which discriminates against girls, she is a confident, ambitious, courageous and an outgoing person. She has all the qualities of a future leader.

Viola was elected student leader for the entire school by her high school peers last year when she was in form 2, so she is respected even by her older peers in form 3 and 4. In order to help Viola and other children grow their livelihood and leadership skills, we make regular visits to their schools and their home communities to speak to teachers, parents, the children themselves and their community leaders. During these visits we ensure that we get time for counselling and mentorship sessions with the students where we reach out to students who have special needs and appreciate and encourage those who are excelling in their school work.

Thank you for your partnership and please share our work with your friends so that we can identify more children like Viola. Let them know that a good time to give to our project is September 16th 2015 where GlobalGiving will give a 30% bonus to any contribution made that day.

Thanking you and wishing you blessings.

In this reporting period from January 2015 to April 2015, 38 children received assistance to study at kindergarten, primary and secondary school level. Normal project activities including counseling & mentorship sessions were carried out successfully and the sponsored students performed well in their school examinations.

Three significant events took place during the period. The first is the visit of two girls to Denmark to raise awareness in Copenhagen on the work of Nenkashe Education Centre (NEC). Another event is the invitation of Nenkashe Education Centre to raise project funds through GlobalGiving Foundation’s fundraising platform and the third significant event that took place this reporting period is another invitation for NEC to partner with CARE International Kenya in a 5 year program which targets women and girls empowerment.

Seven (7) children spent the April 2015 at the NEC Safe House. This was necessitated by the severe drought in most parts of the Kajiado County and partly by the unsafe home environment. The children are provided with a home environment and are looked after by an experienced matron and the NEC members. A Social Worker connected to the Children’s Office visited the home periodically.

One of the girls who spent her holiday at the safe-house is Malel. Four years ago a marriage ceremony was interrupted by government officials because the bride was a 9 year old girl, a minor. The parents of the young child had arranged to marry off their daughter and had received dowry in form of livestock, blankets and money. On the day of the planned wedding ceremony, the bridegroom and the girl’s uncle were arrested by the police who were accompanied by the Area Chief and a Children’s Officer to the home where the minor was being prepared for her wedding.

The groom was arrested and taken into police custody for the offence of planning to marry a minor and the officials informed the wedding party that the wedding is cancelled because the law prohibits marriage of minors.

Malel is now 12 years old and doing well in school. She attends Oloshoiborr Primary School. Last term she was in the top 10 of her class ranking in position 8 out of 32 students. Her future aspiration is to become a pilot. Thank you for helping her have dreams for her life and for helping her get there through your support for the work of Nenkashe Education Centre.

Leonard Lenina, Project Leader