Educate girls and fight poverty in Kenya

Below is a letter we received from Purity, a former WGEP Kenya scholar who is now working toward a degree in accounting:

My name is Purity and I am glad to share my life history and experience with you up to now. I was born in 1996, began my primary education in the year 2001 and completed in 2009.

After my primary education, I began secondary school in 2010. In the year 2011 I became a beneficiary of the Sisters to School program. I sincerely say that I am greatly indebted to the organization for the support you offered to me. You paid my school fees and provided me with the personal items that I required. These really helped me to have a comfortable and easy time in school since my parents could not meet all of my needs.

Also, I must add that the counseling mental care provided every year really helped me to cope with life in and outside of school, especially when I took my exam in 2013.

I am now working as the secretary at Gatue Secondary School, working toward my mission of being an accountant {CPA} and working in mass media.

Lastly, let me again say thanks and best of luck as you move forward changing the lives of the needy and of society in general.

Yours,

Purity

You have made an individual impact on Purity's life and on the lives of hundreds of other young women in Kenya. On behalf of Purity and all of our scholars, we thank you!

Thank you for your continued support and commitment to Women’s Global Education Project. We have an exciting program to share with you! As part of our scholarship program, we also provide complementary interventions such as tutoring, mentoring, health workshops and community outreach. These interventions are part of WGEP’s holistic approach to dismantling the barriers to girls’ access to and success in school. One of our community outreach programs is a women’s literacy program. Women join this program in order to gain reading and writing skills to help their daughters with their homework in addition to improving their own lot in life. With literacy skills, these mothers become mentors for their daughters, not only helping them with their homework, but also acting as good examples and demonstrating the power and importance of education.

An offshoot of our women’s literacy program is the “Merry-go-round” program, a micro finance group that allows the women to pool their money together and then, once a month, one of the women receives the entire pot. With this large sum of money, the woman is able to purchase things she would be unable to otherwise, such as the space for a new business or a plot of land. This program supports women by keeping them in control.

Since its start, the women in the Merry-go-round program have found ways to give back to their communities. For instance, they were able to buy three goats, multiple tables, dishes, lamps and litter tanks to retrieve rainwater. In these ways, the program has greatly benefited the women involved, their families and the wider community.

Thank you for helping to support Sisters to School and its complementary activities such as the Merry-go-round program!

Links:

• http://womensglobal.org/