Transform the Lives of Up to 600 Orphaned Girls

Thanks to you, we have completed stage 1, enrolling 100 orphaned girls in school in northern Kenya. Florence, our project director in Kenya, expresses her thanks in her annual report.

Faith onyango was very excited

WOMEN WITHOUT BORDERS-KENYAREPORT

ANNUAL REPORT AUGUST 2018

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am glad take this opportunity to show appreciation to all of you who made this happen. Our foremost special thanks go to Kim Power, President Sunflower Foundation Australia and her team. We thank God who created the partnership through Facebook. Your dream and our dream became a reality. We are now supporting 100 girls in Bungoma County. It’s a pleasure today to acknowledge the funding you contributed to our project in 2017

.My acknowledgement goes to the Board for tireless cooperation to run the organisation, volunteers who served this program ,the school teachers, school BOM,and the caregivers and children themselves for their contribution to make the program successful. They really accepted this girls in there program without any payments. They were great donors too. Thank you very much for your support. Our thanks also goes to teacher Vincent and your team to have accepted to tuition our girls during the holidays. To enable them cope with other children. Our sincere thanks goes to IGC Pastor for supporting our children in Equal chances Academy. Last but not list we know many people contributed to this. Our gratitude’s goes to Ministry of Education for providing laptops for lower classes, books, and added some staff on the school. We hope with joint efforts Sirisia will never remain the same.

From “the bush back to school” they will leave to remember you the rest of their lives. May God uplift you and make their dreams come true.

It’s exactly one full year since girl child empowerment project was born through Sunflower Foundation .The girls were really excited to have seen new life. The caregiver were happy to see their girls back to school but men were unhappy to see their brides return to school.  The girls are looking forward to completing primary school and join University

AGNES' STORY (dictated to Women Without Borders volunteer)

It was three years ago when my husband was attacked with the stroke. By then my first born daughter was going to sit for her Kenya certificate of primary examination, She did not perform well. Everything went on a standstill because he was the bread winner of our family. My daughter got pregnant and delivered a baby boy. I had no way out to feed other family members and take them to school. We went around the community to work for people in the household cleaning and washing clothes to feed the family. We struggled slowly with the help of well-wishers the second born boy completed primary and joined secondary school. Our family is family of 5 kids.2 girls with three boys.

I thank God when Women Without borders came to our village looking for girls who can’t afford their education. My daughter was selected. My young daughter called Belaring is my second daughter. Am quite sure that my daughter will learn and reach University so that one day she will save our family. We so grateful for the sponsors who are supporting us. May God bless them all.

TRUDEA's STORY  (GRANDMOTHER TO MERCY)

Trudea is 68 years old an old grandmother nursing 7 children. Both parents died due to HIV/AIDS. Mercy was born in Nasianda village of Kimilili location of Bungoma County. Her mother died 8 years ago when Mercy was 4years old. She was left under the care of her aged grandmother Trudea. The father was also positive but has struggled with live till early last month July when he passed on.

Trudea tells her story.

Since the death of Mercy’s mother i took the initiative of taking care of my grandchildren. The first born daughter was mentally sick. She was attacked by cerebral malaria and it destroyed her brain when she was two years old. She has been bedridden all this years. Unfortunately the sister who was sickly passed on two weeks after the death of the father. Without the help of her father, Mercy’s sisters never completed primary school, instead they got married at very young. The father was struggling with sickness. Even boys dropped out of school.

Now after the death of Mercy’s father, she remains with her grandmother who feeds her and clothes her. Trudea now is distressed about how she will do all this with all the other grandchildren. Due to all the problems she was experiencing, the village elder referred her to Women Without Borders for support. However Mercy had already registered for Kenya certificate primary examination. Because her performance was not good enough to win her a place at a boarding high school, Mercy has joined a day secondary school. Without the support of a place at boarding school, she’ll probably drop out of school. Mercy now is faced with many challenges, because her parents are dead and her grandmother very elderly. Mercy is with her sister’s daughter who got pregnant while in school and went to the city to look for a job. Trudea is now caring for this great-grand-child. 

Girls like Mercy are more likely to be cheated by those who express sympathethy for their situation. They are likely to be sexually abused, to have an early teen pregnancy or early child marriage. We have many girls in this community that face the same challenges like the ones Mercy is passing through. 

Women Without Borders operating in this community is facing such challenges the girl is going through. We need supporters who are willing to give support to such girls to complete their education from primary school through to secondary education. Some NGOs support girls who performed very well ready to join and has been taken to national school. How about those ones who are most likely to drop out of Kindergarten? We shall never reach the Global Goals 2030 if we leave this cohort behind.

OVERVIEW OF BUNGOMA COUNTY.

Bungoma County which has the population of 1.7 million .Sub divided into 9 sub counties. This one of the small counties which is growing along the Kenya Uganda border. The major food crop is maize, beans, cassava, bananas and potatoes. Our cash crop is tobacco and sugarcane. With high corruption with our local sugar companies increases poverty levels in this community. The sugarcane takes too long on the farms and at the end of the day when taken to factory no payments. The poverty level according Kenya bureau 56% below poverty line. The town is on the great north road leading to Uganda, Rwanda, and Sudan. All the tracks ferrying goods to the neighbouring countries pass in Bungoma as such the spread of HIV/AIDS is very high. Being spread by drivers. 

CHALLENGES

High rate of HIV/Aids, early pregnancies, early marriages, child abuse, sexual abuse, child labour, child trafficking street children. Drug abuse

The community is not sensitized to the rights and protection on girl child. More advocacy forums to the community

IMPACT

NO OF GIRLS ENROLLED        CLASS              RETENTION       PERFORMANCE       

   100                                               2-8                        99                         Good

ITEMS SUPPLIED/no 

SCHOOL UNIFORMS        SOCKS       SWEATERS           SHOES              BOOKS & SANITARY PRODUCTS

            100                          100 pairs            100                   100 pairs                        6 cartons/40           

Links:

• Sunflower Foundation (Australia) Inc. Website