Mentoring 16 orphan and needy girls in Kenya

May 2013

Nairobi Kenya

Dear GlobalGiving Friends,

The girl mentorship project has enormously served girls in our community, particularly in the area of computer training competence.  In the month of April we engaged six girls who went through a two weeks intensive computer training course.  The girls (two in high school and four post high school) were also mentored on career choices and taught about business skills.  We were privileged to have a health and nutritional expert who trained the girls on hygiene, sex education as well as diet and nutrition matters.  There were practical classes where the girls went to the garden to identify different foods and answer questions concerning nutritional values of such foods as well as discuss different ways in which such foods could be prepared.  One girl was motivated to start a career in food production following one practical lesson.  She explained, “I did not know bananas can be prepared  to make up to seven different form of meals – I only ate it ripe or boiled, thank you to SAWA for giving me a business idea – Kinya”

Since the inception of the program last year we have had 15 direct beneficiaries, including two girls who have been temporarily employed to work with the parent women’s group SAWA.  Each of the 15 girls has impacted at least two more girls in their communities making a total of 30 indirect beneficiaries.   Our main immediate goal is to acquire more computers to cater for more girls during the holiday and also purchase a printer/scanner to facilitate our work.

With my sincere gratitude for your support in this effort to improve opportunities for young girls,

Catherine Kaimenyi

Project Leader

March 2013

Nairobi Kenya

Dear Global Giving Friends,

Two weeks ago, I visited one of the our mentees who joined university in October to establish how the mentorship helped her to fit in the university.  Esther, is grateful that she built strong values and was  introduced to gender and human (particularly) women rights issues at SAWA. She shares a room with a girl from North Eastern Kenya, and has been able to adjust living with her because SAWA helped her to embrace diversity.  In her own words "I never valued people from other communities, I stereotyped them, I regarded women from disadvantaged communities as primative and would not have imagined friendship with them leave alone living together.  At SAWA I was made to understand that we are all equal.  I liked the Girl Effect lessons and know I can make a change in a girl's life.  I no longer consider myself poor and disadvantaged because I was empowered to see my strengths."

These were powerful words for a rural girl who spent only two months with us.  Her perspectives speaks volumes of the impact of our program.  Esther formed a group of eight girls from her university  to meet together on Sunday afternoons to discuss leadership issues.  She reminded me that SAWA inspired her to register as a voter and she is eager to vote come the general elections on March 4th.  She also inspired others to register as voters too, bearing in mind that the youth have in the past years taken a back seat as far as this is concerned.  Esther had this to say "We discuss the qualities we want of our leaders in our meetings using the wisdom I gained from SAWA.  I am the group chair, and I coordinate the group using principles acquired during the program"

Agnes is also another young girl that SAWA is mentoring.  In early January, she participated in our program for three days and the impact was overwhelming.  She drastically acquired superb computer skills which she uses to communicate particularly with other SAWA girls that she met.  She plans to continue with her mentorship with us when she breaks for her long holiday in May this year.

Currently we are mentoring two girls that Caroline, our full time officer is training  on computer skills and business skills.

With my sincere gratitude for your support in this effort to improve the opportunities for young girls,

Catherine Kaimenyi

Project Leader