Mentoring 16 orphan and needy girls in Kenya

Nairobi Kenya,

Dear Friends,

Our mentorship program, launched in 2012, initially admitted four girls who went through a two months training at Solidarity for the Advancement of Womens’ Agenda (SAWA) offices.  The activities were both outdoor and indoor and meant to propel individual growth and interaction abilities with other members of the society.  Mentors occasionally joined the mentees to offer individual and group mentorship and covered various topical issues like relationships, health and hygiene, careers, businesses and spirituality.  Interestingly, the girls   also offered peer mentorship which was an unexpected outcome of the project. As they graduated from the program, they had built communication skills, computer skills, business skills as well as interpersonal skills.

SAWA has keenly followed these pioneers of the program to find out what they are doing in their lives and compiled the following individual report:

Kawira is currently in her final year at the university.  The concept of community service has become very meaningful to her and she mentors other orphaned girls at the university and beyond to show them that they can still face life successfully. She informs us that the program stimulated her to appreciate people and know that she does not only need to help her siblings and those related to her, as she puts it “ I now look at the world with different lens, that my happiness is not complete until all are happy, especially other girls.  My task henceforth will be to preach this hope and inspire others to do something good to someone else. “   She has confessed this since she left SAWA more than two years ago.

Another mentee, Margaret has actively been engaged in community life in all aspects.  She got married a year ago and is blessed with their first child.  Margaret can now confidently stand and talk in front of a group, something she could not when she joined SAWA.  In her own words “When I joined SAWA, my self-esteem was too low having been brought up to believe that as a Maasai girl, my place at family and community level is always second-class and that I do not measure to the standards of girls from other communities”.  Margaret does tailoring for a living and organizes a group of girls from Gichagi village where they engage in public health activities as well as business skills training – mainly making baskets and beadwork for sale.

For Caroline, courage and determination are prerequisites to success in life - virtues that brought a lot of meaning in her life.  She is currently working in her small business in her rural town as well as doing some hair dressing classes.  Caroline confesses that her perspective for life was changed through the SAWA experience and she can now do anything to earn a living as long as it is something ethical. She trains other girls in the community to engage in small businesses rather than be idle and engaging in immoral behavior which leads to unwanted pregnancies and at times exposes them to sexually transmitted infections.

Wairimu is currently in her third year at the university and says her experience with SAWA transformed her thinking and positively shaped her life. She associates her success in school to her experience with us where she learnt the principles of hard work, self-respect and focused life.

Other mentees of the program have been inspired by these four and aspire to get to where they are in their school and careers.

We are thankful to you for enabling us impact on the lives of needy girls in the community.

With gratitude,

Catherine Kaimenyi

Nairobi Kenya,

Dear Friends,

I would like to tell you about a one-day seminar we ran to train girls from Gichagi slum area of Ngong Division, Kajiado County. The seminar had three objectives:

1. To create awareness of issues surrounding rape and how girls can protect themselves against this behaviour
2. To discuss girl-boy relations issues with a view of empowering girls to say no to sex and control their lives in such relationships.
3. To encourage girls to effectively compete with boys in academic cycles so that they can acquire necessary education to brighten their lives.
4. To enhance knowledge and best practices on hygiene particularly during the menstrual cycles.

After a warm welcome and settling down as everything was in order, we participated in the following activities:

Everyone was requested to introduce herself to the group. This offered an opportunity to know the names, age and level of education as well the school. The girls were given the first priority, then trainers and SAWA staff concluded. The main purpose for this was to enhance familiarization and create good rapport.

Margaret spoke about girl-boy relationship, their strengths and weakness and how they should be used to foster education.  She also gave the girls tips on how to avoid early pregnancies which would affect their education. There were so many questions which all the other facilitators helped to answer.

I talked about rape which is increasing in Kenya today, particularly where old men are spoiling young girls, mostly their relatives.  She stressed on behavior and habit of such people which girls need to be aware of.  She also gave tips of how to avoid being victims and advised that should one become a victim they should not hide it but report to the parents, guardians and other grow-ups so that medical attention can be sought and necessary legal action taken.  There were so many questions and the topic was not exhausted.  It was postponed to April 2015.

The reusable sanitary towel project was revisited where nine of the girls present confirmed that they still make them for their own use though not every month.  Our group distributed some sanitary pads packets that.  It was a very exciting moment.

It was a wonderful session and the girl articulated ‘life is a learning process and each and every day we learn a new thing’.

Thank you for supporting us in our efforts to mentor young girls and encourage their education and empowerment.

Catherine Kaimenyi