 2C6A2942 |  Where I've always wanted to be! |
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 In 2011 I took my first trip to Kenya |  |
 Africa 2017 -_One of my most favorite sh |  Untitled |
 |  COMING SOON!_“It Takes a Village” Docume |
Building bridges to education for girls in Kenya.
In poor countries, many of the world's young girls are faced with huge obstacles when it comes to receiving a formal education. They are often struggling to survive extreme poverty, abuse, early marriage, discrimination, and living in daily fear of their well being and their futures.
This unfortunately is not an uncommon scenario for young girls in rural Kenya. Primary school (K-8) and high school (“secondary" in Kenyan terminology) is not free.
For rural Kenyans, secondary schools are typically boarding schools with students living at the school during the school year.
In addition to tuition, students are expected to pay room and board, as well as transportation to and from school each of the three school terms. Additional costs for students include uniforms, books, school supplies, bedding and personal hygiene products. For rural students whose parents often struggle to earn a living, this is a huge barrier to receiving an education.
Without financial support, these children have no choice but to join their parents in seeking 'casual labor' with their low grade education. Girls often marry and start a family, perpetuating the cycle of poverty.
The Initiative
Our Mission: Our mission is to reduce barriers to education through sponsorship opportunities for impoverished or underprivileged young girls in Kenya. Opportunities will have an emphasis on education, personal empowerment, mentorship, self love and emotional wellness.
Funding model: Our goal is to create a funding model which would allow each student to be sponsored by individuals, groups or corporations, thus removing financial barriers that prevent underprivileged girls from reaching their potential.
Partnerships: We are currently fostering strategic partnerships with like minded organizations to leverage knowledge, experience, time, manpower and resources to reach a collective goal.
Phase 1: In Kenya, since 2011, sponsorships began taking place and the results are deeply moving and inspiring. We have provided many children with sponsors and those children are continuing their educations. We are seeing changed lives and the foundations for the community at large to follow. The children are seeing themselves as valuable and essential world citizens working to make the world a better place. They are learning to dream big, to live rich and fulfilling lives and to be positive contributors to society. Many children here are orphaned at a young age and for girls this can result in exploitation beyond measure. Schools are creating safe learning environments for young girls, and often times without this safe haven, these young girls face a life of unimaginable trauma.
Our goal in this first phase is to increase the number of young girls sponsored with a goal of helping them complete their education and go on to university or trade school.
Phase 2: Continue to evolve our process and create dynamic programs that in addition to academics, will also focus on mentorship, life skills and social emotional development.
We invite you to be part of this global initiative to reshape our world through education.