Dear Sponsors and Literacy Garden Team
One of the most amazing elements of the literacy garden is that it encourages the girls to be proactive with words.
We provide a space for them to read and learn, but just as importantly, the space allows them to create.
Poems.
Plays.
Projecting their voice.
While most of these are designed on the group level, we have found a way for the girls to share their voice with the world: e-publishing.
Over 10 of our girls have drafted, designed, and created small stories about their lives. This requires the use of many skill sets that we teach: story arch development, the use of technology, translation into English, artistic design, grammar checking, and seeing through a project on a timeframe.
The result is beautiful stories that give the world a glimpse into the lives of the girls.
I would encourage you to read this wonderful example of what the girls are creating, Ugali and Fish by Macreen. Use these windows that the girls have opened to understand the impact of your donation.
Just having a space to call their own is already a remarkable achievement. We are currently in the second phase of building with the next big steps a borehole for water to help beautify the area and a solar tower to help charge the technology.
We want to continue to support this truly worthy cause and hope to relay on to you the impact of every single donation that you make.
Thank you for everything,
Evan Lorendo, Digital Char, Sunflower Foundation
Links:
Dear sponsors,
On behalf of Women Without Borders -Kenya,kindly allow us to register our sincere thanks for the efforts you are making to support marginalised girls attend secondary education.Its through your efforts to eliminate poverty levels in women through girl child education.Many young girls get married before the age of 18 due to poverty levels in households.Public primary schools in Kenya are tuition- free,but good education is cost effective,while tuition costs for high schools are substantial. Fewer than 50% of girls in Sub-Saharan Africa will complete high school because they cannot afford these fees.A quality high school in Kenya can cost up to $1500 per child,and with per capital income of $755 mostKenyan families cannot afford the cost to send a child to school.As a result, 84% of Kenyan girls attend primary school,while only 48% enroll in secondary schools.
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1 whyinvest in adolescent girls? United Nations Foundation and Clinton Global Initiative.
https://www.clintonglobalinitiative.org/our meetings/PDF/actionareas/why_invest_in_Adolescent_Girls.PDF
2 https://camfed.org/what-we-do/
3 ibd
4http://in.org/millenniumgoals/gender.XHTML.
WWBK is taking the initiative of taking this marginalised girls through primary ,secondary to college.
Barbara one of our girl narrates the story.
My name is Barbara Situma. I come from Misikhu location of Bungoma County Webuye west sub county. I was born in a family of 6. Am the second born.My family is very poor.I sat for Kenya primary examination council last year 2018.This was the time I met Women Without Borders recruiting girls who are unable to complete their education.They assisted me with school supplies and sanitary towels.They really assisted me to go through my exam successfully.I joined Form one St.Patrick's Secondary school.
I thank God that through your efforts am seeing my way through.WWB is facing the challenge of meeting many girls who need to go school but due to lack of funds they can't reach every body.May God bless you donors as you support us through Women
Ripple effects
" There is clear and convincing evidence, amassed over the passed decades,that investing in girls-Specific resources leads to better educated,safer,healthier,and economically powerful adolescent girls.This can contribute to a substantially better future not just for the individual girl,but for their families, communities, and our world".
Educated girls increase their earning potential by 25%,and will reinvest90%of that into her family.Girls who complete education are also 3×less likely to become infected with HIV,and will have children who are 40% more likely to be health and live past the age of 5 years.1% increase in female secondary schools attendance single handedly grows a country's average annual per capital income by 0.3%
Yet financial constraints remain a major barrier to education for women.
Donate as little as you can afford to enable us reach our target."We have aswahili saying that say" kidogo kidogo unajaza Kibaba" it means little by little will fill the port or the container. We believe that you are doing amazing job that you require God's award from Heaven.
Support the women if you love your mother.
By Florence Ndukuyu.
For women.
Hi
In this letter, there is good news and sad news. The good news first.
As we shared with you in our last letter, the bore well has been sunk. In January 2019, the building of a water tower and plumbing works to enable distribution of water to community members will begin. The roofing of the multisport basketball court is complete, and Literacy classes will also re-commence in January.
Work in progress:
We began construction of roller skating paths at the literacy garden with the Kes 69,000 (US$645) we received from Sunflower foundation ngo. The paths will be used by the girls to skate around the garden and build their self esteem/confidence as they learn this sport regarded as boys-only sport in Kenya. We have been asking the community and volunteers to donate roller skates to us and so far we have received 6 pairs. We are raising funds to buy at least 30 pairs to start the girls off.
The work has involved excavations of loose top soil, ferrying it to the other parts of the garden where it will be used to grow crops, collecting and transporting quarry stones to the site, excavation of quarry stones available in the site, and arranging stones on the pathways. To complete the skate paths, gravel topping will cost an additional US$2150, whilst tarmacking of skating paths will cost US$6093.
We are still lacking funds for the E-Readers (50pcs) US$ $6451 and solar light/power system US$1972. These are key components of the program and will simultaneously teach literacy and technology skills.
It is encouraging to see the garden begin to come to life and that the girls have a safe space to learn, to play and to develop. Learning must be wholistic to be truly beneficial. And cognitive functioning is linked to the development of physical skills. Moreover, it offers engaging activities that will reduce risks to girls that include include early sexual activity, early teen pregnacies, and sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS.
I can't put off the bad news any longer. The sad truth is that the Foundation has been unable to find volunteers to take over the bulk of the administration previously done by the Founders, who are aging and unwell. We have searched for two years, but the role of Executive officer is a huge commitment of 3-4 days per week, and volunteers with such passion are thin on the ground. It's even sadder for us, as we are not insolvent. We just don't have anyone who will commit to taking the Foundation further. All funds in hand will go to our two Kenyan Projects.
If you wish to continure supporting this project, a link to our project partner's, The Riley Orton Foundation, own GlobalGiving page is below.
Thank you all so very much for your generosity, your goodwill and kindness. Together we have seeded hope for hundreds of girls. Gratefully yours, Kim, Co-founder of the Sunflower Foundation (Australia) Inc.
Links:
Literacy Garden Report October 22, 2018
In a time of dreadful tragedies, we are so glad to have a good news story to share. We have made marked progress with the construction of infrastructure at the garden. A donor who wants to remain anonymous donated USD$20,000 to drill the well and $6000 to start building the amphitheater at the garden.
We successfully drilled the well this week striking water at 150 meters. The drilling team are still at the site installing the steel casings and developing the borehole with gravel pack and installing the cap. (See Youtube link below.)
The girls have continued to use the garden for storytelling and poetry sessions. 3 schools are currently actively involved as we focus on piloting this small group using the limited resources we have while building the infrastructure to accommodate everyone.
We still need funds to purchase the e-readers, install solar energy to pump water from the borehole, storage water tanks (essential in a land subject to drought, sprinklers for farming/gardening, and garden benches and reading areas. We also need to build a water kiosk for sales to the girls and their communities, as well as accommodation rooms for farm camps and workshops, a kitchen and play stations and finish skating paths.
Thank you all so much for your support. Metaphorically, this project returns to the girls to Eden.
Links:
Although we haven't received any major grants for the literacy garden (it is always very difficult for donors to get involved with a new project) we have made marked progress in getting volunteers and a few small orgs involved to get us started. With every $$ we receive, we are starting to build the literacy garden gradually. We believe that if we are resilient and start working towards our vision, like minded people and friends will join along the way.
To this end, we have raised about $11,800 USD from donations and small grants;
PROGRESS OF THE LITERACY GARDEN PROJECT 2018
We conducted a survey and found out that 95% of the girls/students from the 7 schools we work with have never been read a story book. Only 5% read story books at home, only 15% read story books at school and 10% could answer specific questions related to the stories they had read. This is our baseline for ongoing evaluation.
We have used donations to clear and level grounds at the garden, make paths, build 2 shade areas, build a mini library, gate, security house, basketball court, pretend play hospital, and school supplies as outlined in the attached xls document.
We have also continued our sessions on storytelling, poetry, music and drama, writing and e book publishing with the help of our volunteer instructor Rose and volunteers Nicole, Libby, Kendra and Josh, Haley and Dennis.
Rose and the volunteers have been reading to the students taking them through the structure of a story to enable them construct stories in a systematic way.
Within the short period of time we have piloted the program, we have seen how important storytelling has been in enhancing the girls creativity, confidence and developing their language
They have also composed a poem called "First time in literacy" which highlights how shy some of them were at during their first sessions on storytelling and poetry at the literacy garden and how different/ bold they all are now
With the help of volunteers Kendra and Josh, we have also taken the girls through writing personal narratives and stories about their culture and the common things they do everyday: eg helping their mothers to prepare meals, gardening etc. Using the ipads , the girls have learnt to draft, edit, take photos and make their own digital story books. They will publish the books by next week online. We will share them with you once published. We see this as a crucial way towards giving the girls a voice to talk about/share issues they care about in the community and create sustainable change. It also helps them to work towards being published authors at a budding age besides improving their language and communication skills.
The girls have also been participating in Hot Sitting Discussions and Debates where they are given different topics such as ;
The girls are expected to oppose or support each others points. Usually there are no preparations for this to encourage creativity and critical thinking, as well as encouraging them to be confident, respect other people’s opinions and challenge them fairly without being disrespectful.
The Next Step
We need $15,000 dollars to build the next stage - solar energy towers that will power the girls' devices, and most importantly, permit a further stage, the sinking of the bore well.
The energy is needed to power the sinking of the bore, and to run the pumps after it is built. The bore itself has three major purposes:
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