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