Safe futures - self-reliance for 675 Kenyan girls

An uncertain election year, rising costs and extreme inflation have made this year a very difficult one for Seed of Hope and our students. The combination of these circumstances are now causing a significant strain on our funds and threatening the continuation of our Seed of Hope programme meaning that the education of our students is at risk.

Many of our students are looking forward to graduating this December and we expect many more to join us in January. Girls like Valentine, who joined us in January 2017 to follow her passion in cookery. Overcoming a difficult background in the slums of Nairobi, Valentine signed up to our Seed of Hope Homecare Management course and has recently been offered a full time job as a result of her training attachment. Valentine is working hard to help her widowed mother support her siblings through school and hopes to save part of her income to follow her dream of opening her own restaurant someday.

“Since I joined Seed of Hope, my life changed as I have gained confidence, learned to interact with others and gained courage to face things in life.” 

We are extremely grateful for the support you have given us over the years and are excited by the impact that this has helped us to ensure.  Now we need your support more than ever

• A donation of £7 ($9)  could purchase one student’s training materials for the next two months
• A donation of £16 ($21)could train one student for a month
• A donation of £20 ($26) could provide one student with school meals for a term

Your support will allow us to…

• Ensure that teenage girls benefit from skills training at Seed of Hope, equipping and empowering them for employment or self-employment
• Ensure that Seed of Hope students receive a hot, nutritious lunch on a daily basis (for many, their only meal)
• Provide training materials for girls to use in their vocational training

Please support us this bonus day where GlobalGiving is offering proportional matching on donations made this Thursday 5^th October from 9am EDT (2pm BST). Even if you can’t support our appeal this time round, please share this with friends, family members or colleagues.

Be a Champion for these young girls today!

Second term of the school calendar came to an end and this saw all learning institutions’ closing early reasons being that the country was preparing for the general election in August 8th and in most cases the voting process is carried out in primary and secondary schools. Seed of Hope also had to close the centres to allow their students to travel with family and guardians back to their rural homes to cast their votes so as to exercise their rights to elect leaders of their choice. Some parents were anxious to have their girls at home as people had anticipated the reoccurrence of post elections violence after intense campaigns across the country. Although the election process was peaceful, few days that followed created so much tension and anxiety which eventually resulted to violence after the presidential results was announced. Seed of management had to reach out to parents whose daughters are living in areas where violence broke out so as to ensure that their families are safe and have not been affected by the post elections violence since their girls are expected to resume back in September.

 Dorcas is among the girls who had to travel back to her village in Western Kenya. She is a second year student undertaking the dressmaking, fashion and fabric design in our Nairobi centre. Her background story is one that inspired me to make constant follow up on her safety and encourage her stay strong so she can be able to come back and finish up her course. Dorcas is the first born in a family of six siblings. She completed her primary education but did not proceed to secondary school due to lack of funds. Her parents are small scale sugarcane farmers and they depend on the little income they earn after selling sugarcane in the market to cater for the family needs which is barely enough to sustain them from one harvesting season to another. She stayed with her parents in the village helping the with house chores before she got a break though and came to Nairobi. During one of her visits to the village, Dorcas aunt saw that the girl had lost hope in life since had no skills that would enable her to get employed hence decided to bring her along so that she can join vocational training institute to learn new skills.

Fortunately the aunt knew one of Seed of Hope graduates within the neighbourhood and she inquired about the programme and its location. Once she learnt about Seed of Hope and the different courses being offered for free, she did not hesitate hence brought her niece so that she can be enrolled in the programme a year ago. Dorcas is a discipline, polite and hardworking girl who is about to graduate in November. We spoke before breaking for recess and she had this to say about the programme “Seed of Hope has empowered me to know my worth and I have gained confidence to communicate well with people. Am no longer the shy girl who could not interact with my peers” When I asked her about her future plans after graduating from Seed of Hope she mentioned that she will first go for attachment before looking for employment so that she can be able support her parents and younger siblings back in the village. Her desire is to save enough money so that she can start her own business and become independent. She also love education and she also hopes to one day be able to go back to school and complete high school and advance to university to pursue degree in fashion design.I believe with her determination, her dreams are valid and it will be a matter of time before she is able to fulfilled all that she desires in life.

Other news is that the step up skill camp that brought together students from all our four Seed of Hope centres happened in July. It was 4 days of intensive training and activities that enabled girls with low self-esteem and confidence participates in different activities so as to develop their skills and compete amongst the groups. These year skills camp focused more on personal development and healthy lifestyle.  During the camp, the girls were engaged in team building, problem solving, dancing,presentations and many other activities. At the end of the four day, each participant received a certificate and gifts from the facilitators. I spoke to few girls with regards to the lesson learnt and this is what they shared with us! Caroline said “The skills camp experience was great because I learned the Scottish dance, tree of knowledge, problem solving and how to stand for what is right. I now have a positive mind-set towards life and what I want to achieve and that is why i love Vision Africa for coming up with this programme”. Dillsy from our Seed of Hope in Kisii said “I am excited to have visited Nairobi for the first time in my life; I made new friends from other centres and the group from Scotland. I gained a lot experience especially with the tree of knowledge which boosted my confidence as I now believe in myself. I learn how to make good presentation which I will use when comes to business deals in future. I also believe that I can do great things and go far as I discovered my talents but also with the many skills that I have acquired at Seed of Hope.”  

All this would not have been possible were it not for your continuous support towards he Seed of Hope Programme. I would like to sincerely thank you because it is through your giving that has made it possible for the girls to believe in themselves and discover their potential to shape their destiny and that of their families while creating positive impact wherever they go