The project will support Post-primary girl child education for 50 girls in Ugenya, Kenya. It will expand their opportunities to attend secondary school; build marketable skills; develop after-school tutoring and mentoring programs; develop training opportunities to promote girls' transitions to safe and productive livelihoods; and to equip the girls to advocate for themselves and their communities. When girls get education, they stay away from early marriages and contribute to health families
Ugenya has a population of over 100,000 who live for less than a dollar a day. Increasing poverty and cultural prevalence for the boy child lock out girls from attending secondary schools. Parents choose to pay school fees for boys and give out girls for marriage. Uneducated girls have high chances of acquiring HIV/AIDS due to lack of safe sex negotiation power. This project focuses on helping girls go to secondary schools. This delays their marriage and gives them life skills.
We will pay school fees for 50 girls. The girls will be enrolled in a one year mentoring program that will equip them with life skills including safe transitions to reproductive health. During the period, the girls will be given sanitary pads to encourage them remain in school. This is expected to boost their academic performance as well.
Putting 50 girls from poor families in secondary school will create a girl effect, a transformative force needed to achieve the MDGs. An adolescent girl stands at the threshold of adult-hood. In that moment, much is decided. If she stays in school, remains healthy, and gains real skills, she will marry later, have fewer and healthier children, and earn an income that she'll invest back into her family.
