Improving lives of 1000 girls in Nairobi's slums

Through the newly formed ‘FURSA’ project which is part of the Mrembo program, 5 Mrembo girls program participants accompanied by their guardians had smiles painted on their faces as their dreams dawned on them just in the nick of time when they received scholarship cheques that would cater for their high school education. With the high school intakes having kicked off this month of February,the scholarship recipients who are Mrembo Goal champions are expected to give back to the community at least once in a week by conducting Mrembo programs with other participants in the community. The girls who will be joining different high schools, have been actively participating in Mrembo program since their early ages from primary schools. “Am happy to join high school, pursue my education as i also continue to be a Mrembo ambassador and teaching other girls even in my new school. Thanks Mrembo program for shaping me and getting my dreams on track.” Said 14 years old  Nzisa who will be joining Nguumo high school.

Programs Around The Schools

With schools having kicked off in the month of January, it’s all systems go, with different programs actively running in schools. Armed with fresh information from the refresher course with targets and goals already set, the coaches are reaching out to secondary and primary school students as well as community members across Nairobi. Despite the awareness programs, plans are afoot for this year’s thematic community events that are generally perceived as a ‘bonus’ to the ongoing awareness program both for the participants and community members where they would access health services and other life changing information from various partners. Additionally with the approval from Kenya medical research institute and the partnership of other institutions,VAP is setting up the stage to run a couple of pilot studies surrounding its community programs with an aim of designing and determining effective strategies of improvements.

Three Mrembo program participants: Naomi, Veronica and Janet were endorsed to participate in the 2016 Global Early Adolescent study (GEAS) video competition. The GEAS is focused on various countries around the globe with the goal of understanding the forces that shape girls and boys behaviors, the messages that young people get and the consequences of those messages. The girls were invited to create and share short videos to tell their stories, about how girls learn to “be women” and what it means to become adolescents in their contexts and cultures. Stories can be funny, emotional, sad or exciting. The videos can show relationships with family school, friends, or other important people in life. They can be personal story, an interview, and a walk through neighborhood. Participants whose videos are selected will receive a honorarium and the winning videos will be displayed during the 2016 international conference on family planning to be held in Indonesia, January 25.The winning participants will also become finalists to be part of the GEAS adolescent advisory team over the course of the next 5 years and will be called upon for advice as well as participating in meetings. The entire VAP family wishes good luck to these girls as they prepare to go global.