Shoot to Score for 500 Children in Northern Kenya

CURRENT DROUGHT UPDATE

The National Drought Management Authority states in their October 2022 drought bulletin that distribution of the October rains was poor both temporally and spatially across most parts of the County. 

The Ministry of Education requested for support from HODI for 4 schools which were severely affected by water shortage. The 4 schools received 52,000L of water in total, each receiving 13,000L per school. The schools have now been able to retain their students in school through provision of lunch.

BUILDING RESILIENT HOUSEHOLDS

With immense support from Corteva through GlobalGiving, we have been able to support 93 women in 4 women groups, jointly called the Qusanno Groups. Qusanno is a local word which means saving together.

These women saved 93,900 shillings together over the months of October and November 2022. These funds are then deposited into an already existing pool from which each group’s members borrow loans to start or strengthen their small businesses, pay fees and medical bills. 

With the donations received from Corteva and GlobalGiving, the groups have been able to plan and implement an audit of their finances through an external auditor. The audit is expected to provide a summary of each group’s finances and recommendations for any major weaknesses found during the course of the audit. 

The audit will also provide accurate information on savings, loans and active membership status for each group. With lessons learned from these women, we hope to expand this initiative to other community members as a way of helping them to build sustainable and resilient communities.

We would like to thank you for your great support this year, and look forward to a properous new year wiith you. We wish you all Happy Holidays!

• Letter from Kubi Bagassa school (PDF)
  

SECURITY SITUATION

At the start of May, the government of Kenya imposed a county-wide dusk to dawn curfew in Marsabit to deal with the security situation that had gotten out of hand, with rampant shootings and general insecurity in the county.

Since then, the curfew has been extended to cover the period of the elections and will lapse in mid August. In general, the curfew and concurrent security operation has reduced the number of incidents in Marsabit over the last three months and the situation has improved.

SHOOT TO SCORE

We distributed twenty-two footballs to three schools and fifteen football boots to one primary school.

The balls and boots will be used during football sessions at these schools, with the balls being high quality leather balls made locally in Kenya. The boots will help to prevent foot injuries and increase comfort during play.

EDUCATING GIRLS IN NORTHERN KENYA

We have, since our last report, made and distributed three hundred and fifty (350) reusable pads to seventy (70) girls in six partner schools. Each girl received a pack of 5 reusable pads that will allow them to continue attending school and reduce the financial cost of purchasing disposable pads.

Another 60 reusable pads to be distributed are ready for distribution once schools reopen after the Kenyan general elections on the 9th of August this year.

We have also conducted a workshop on breast health for 40 girls from 5 primary schools and collected measurements for sport bras. The workshop will help girls to understand more about their bodies and how sport bras make it easier to play football.

We thank all our donors for their support in achieving these results. We also look forward to your continued support.

SHOOT TO SCORE 

Under this project, we were able to deliver the following life skills topics to 503 girls and boys in 5 primary schools:

• Peace
• Wawili wawili (togetherness)
• Leaderline
• Menstruation and hygiene
• Gender and sex

The sessions were implemented between January and March 2022, before schools closed for holidays. 

We have also distributed footballs to 603 children, among them 283 girls, through their schools. The balls will be used to play during their after school activities and lesson breaks. 

EDUCATING GIRLS IN NORTHERN KENYA

Under this project, using funds received from GlobalGiving, we have achieved the following results:

1. We trained one graduate of our tailoring and dressmaking class of 2015 to make reusable sanitary pads for girls in schools. We found it was cheaper to make our own sanitary pads instead of buying from suppliers. 
2. In total, we have produced 277 reusable sanitary pads at our tailoring centre. 
3. We have also separately purchased 50 reusable sanitary pads.
4. In total, 11 girls have received a set of 5 reusable sanitary pads each for their use. This will help them not to miss classes and reduce the financial strain on them and their families. The remaining 222 pads, along with any new ones produced, will be distributed to other girls after schools reopen. Schools have been closed for holidays for the last one month.
5. 128 girls received scholarships from the project between November 2021 and February 2022. The scholarship average amount was 5,900 Kenya shillings ($54). The highest scholarship award was 10,000 shillings ($92). 
6. In total, we used 767,000 shillings ($7,120) to award these scholarships.
7. We have used 91% of the funds we received from GlobalGiving in November 2021 for the above activities. The remaining $860 will go towards purchasing additional supplies for the reusable sanitary pads and overhead costs like bank charges. 
8. Using solar lamps received from our partnership with Namene Solar, 63 girls and women are now able to study and work better at night. The lamps are very light and durable.

We thank all our donors for their support in achieving these results. We also look forward to your continued support. We have attached a financial report for reference, along with images of some of our activities.

• Financial Report EGK-Corteva2021 (XLSX)

Dear Supporters of HODI,

We are writing to update you one last time before this year comes to a close. It has been a wonderful year full of great achievements, key among them being our work with schools and communities in Marsabit to spread peace and gender equality. This year, we have also continued strengthening our relationships with government departments. Recently, we donated 4 old sewing machines, 10 tape measures and 10 hammers to the Marsabit Prison to help their efforts to train inmates on industry skills that they can use when they eventually leave prison. 

Through a partnership with Namene Solar, we received 168 solar lamps for distribution to deserving beneficiaries in Marsabit. Some of the girls we work with do not have regular power at home and insteasd use kerosene lamps to study at night. So far, 75 girls have received solar lamps that will definitely help them study better at night and eventually improve their grades in school.

Our relationships with schools has been as strong as ever. Over the last 2 months, we have processed 109 scholarship applications from parents for their girls in high schools. So far, 87 girls have been awarded scholarships with a total amount of 467,000 shillings being sent to schools for the education of these girls. We have a balance of about 283,000 shillings for this activity remaining to be disbursed and we will continue supporting girls in the new year.  We are very grateful to GlobalGiving through their corporate partnership with Corteva and to all of our individual donors who have kept us going in 2021. 

On behalf of all of the girls, boys, women and other community members we have worked with in 2021, we say a big thank you to all of our supporters!

We wish you all happy holidays and look forward to partnering with you all in 2022!

On October 28, 2021, we received a donation of 10000 dollars from GlobalGiving towards our Educating Girls in Northern Kenya project. The funds were to be used in delivering this project’s activities: supporting girls with tuition fees for high school and providing sanitary pads. 

We have created project guidelines to help us in utilizing these funds as efficiently as possible: 

1. Work with schools to identify the most vulnerable girls who have potential to perform well in school but have school fee balances due to their backgrounds. 
2. Vet these applications through meetings with parents and guardians and collect their statements to support their applications.
3. Required documents to support applications include school report forms for the last two school terms and a current fee balance note signed from the school.
4. A committee then reviews and provides recommendations on each application. 
5. The scholarship payments are made directly to the school bank account and the school is informed once payment has been completed. 

So far, we have received 54 applications from different schools, 40 of which have been approved and payments are being processed. 

256,000 shillings ($2,560)has been awarded so far, with an average award amount of 6400 shillings (approx.$64). 

We are using an online platform to store and process these applications and have attached our current status dashboard to this report. 

 

Here are some individual stories from some of the applicants we have received so far: 

Girl affected by recent ethnic clashes in Marsabit

They lost their home in the recent ethnic clashes. She has 5 siblings and her eldest sister dropped out of school due to lack of school fees. The sister is now a small-scale hairdresser and supports their mother with shopping for food. 

Their father died 8 years ago and their mother now supports the entire family by doing small scale business activities in town. They were affected by the conflict where they had to move from place to place to settle in peace. They stayed at her sister's home for one month but the mother felt shy and decided to move to a rental house with her family in a bedsitter house sharing a bed and place to sit. The space is very small but they have nothing to do but to be patient.

The girl in school will hopefully complete high school next year.

 

School where only 1 girl can afford a school uniform

In this mixed gender high school, only one girl has a school uniform. Her parents did not buy her a new school uniform, but she inherited it from her sister who had dropped out earlier due to lack of school fees. At least five of the applicants we received from this school are growing up as orphans.  

The community has chipped in to support these girls by requesting for support from the government and also supporting the headteacher. The headteacher has also made an effort to ensure that these girls continue with their education and do not drop out. The girls believe that they will complete school and support their parents in future. 

We have awarded ten girls in this school to continue with their education.