Gender Equality Kenya Project #21657

Nakuru Safehouse for Kenya Women and Children

by Springs of Hope Foundation

Nakuru Safehouse for Kenya Women and Children

Project Report | Sep 12, 2018
Our 2018/19 class is off to a great start

By Jennifer Hughes-Bystrom | CEO Springs of Hope Foundations

Week1 Introduction to machine care & maintenance

Last July a new life began for 12 very fortunate young women as our 2018/19 tailoring class took off to a fantastic start! 12 very grateful girls will receive free career training in our tailoring course, housing, food and mentoring, as well as access to English as a 2^nd language and computer classes thanks to our overseas volunteers. Our dedicated staff, Martha and Joanne, along with our volunteers are working hard to ensure they have all the support they need to succeed.

MEET ONE OF OUR NEW STUDENTS. Her story is told in her own words.

Mary (I’ve changed her name for her privacy) is one of seven children, both of her parents are living. Her father is an unemployed alcoholic. Her mother, the pillar of the family, sells vegetables at the local market to support the family.

Mary was raped at school on April 25^th, 2007. She was two months short of her 10^th birthday. She says she remembers the day as Wednesday since it was such a traumatic event. She did not take any action, instead, she went home and kept silent out of shame. She felt afraid to tell her mum as she was so strict.

Mary continued with her studies but due to the trauma her grades began to fail; she dropped from number one to number twenty-one. People started to question her performance. Later she started feeling ill but didn’t know why. She was taken to the hospital where it was determined that she was 4 months pregnant. She was removed from school and secluded in her home until she gave birth. After her baby stopped breastfeeding she went back to school and finished her form four. Needless to say, this bright young girl now faced many challenges, school fees and supporting her baby being her biggest.

In 2016 Mary found a job as a house girl in order to raise money to help support her mother and her child. During her time working for this employer, she was not permitted any days off to visit her child. Several months would pass without receiving a paycheck, which eventually forced her to return home.

When she received a call from Kijiji Mission telling her that she had been accepted into the 2018/19 tailoring course, Mary felt that this opportunity of a lifetime was a dream come true and the answer to all of her prayers.

Your support means the world to these girls. This program would not exist without the incredible generosity of people like yourselves. On behalf of all of us, we say a big 'Thank You'!

We have another great opportunity to make all donations qualify for a matching bonus today, September 12th.

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Starting at midnight ET on Wednesday, Sept. 12, GlobalGiving partners will have 33 hours to boost all donations with a $50,000 incentive fund. The hours of the September Bonus Day have been optimized for multiple time zones and all participants will share in the prize winnings!

Warmest regards,

Jennifer Hughes-Bystrom

CEO. Springs of Hope Foundation.

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Jun 13, 2018
Graduation day has finally arrived for some of our young women.

By Jennifer Hughes | CEO Springs of Hope Foundations

Graduation

After a very long 12 months of hard work, sacrifice and long periods away from their families in Samburu our ladies have graduated. There was a great deal of excitement in the week leading up to graduation but on the day of graduation many tears of joy and sadness were shed as we all came to the realization that this brave group of women and their beautiful children, who had become part of our family for the past 12 months would be leaving us for good.

As the certificates were awarded each student made a very moving speech, expressing how much their lives had changed during the time they were with us, how much they have learned and how very grateful they were to be given this life-changing opportunity...More tears...followed by beautiful singing, dancing, and celebration.

During the 12 months this group was with us they not only learned every aspect of tailoring, our volunteers also taught basic computer skills which included preparing individual resumes, creating an email account and sending an email with an attachment. I know this sounds very mundane to us, but the ladies had not sat at a computer when they first arrived. By the time they left, they were quite confident and always eager to take their turn at the laptops.

We still have 8 ladies living with us who will graduate in December. Next month a new group will also join us for 12 months. All of this is possible because of you and your very generous and continued support. Empowering one woman not only makes it possible for her to feed, support and educate her family, the trickle-down effect will continue for future generations.

If you would like to continue to help us support the ladies, please spread the word by sharing this report on your Facebook page.

Asante Sana, thank you so very much.

Jennifer Hughes-Bystrom

Computer class

Our most recent donation, a Janome sewing machine

Study time

Frieda learning & loving the new Janome machine.

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Mar 20, 2018
Graduation is three months away.

By Jennifer Hughes | CEO

The ladies are so proud of their accomplishments.

In June our 2017/18 tailoring class will graduate. Our ladies will be fully prepared for a life they would have never dreamed possible if it wasn't for you and your continued support. Our ladies will have a trade and the skills to be able to feed, support and educate their children.

I would like to share a couple of our student's stories as I know you will feel very proud and privileged to be part of the amazing opportunities our ladies have been blessed with.

Caroline

Caroline is one of 7 children. Her family depends on casual agricultural labor to feed the family. They live in mud houses which are common Samburu shelters. Access to clean water was a constant challenge while Caroline was growing up. The girls would have to walk long distances to collect water, often missing school. Often during her childhood, the family couldn't afford a daily meal, so the children went without food. (These conditions have not changed for Caroline's family) Caroline arrived in June 2017 with her 6-month-old daughter, Sharleen. Due to her poor background, Sharleen was born underweight. When Caroline arrived the first thing we did was take them both in for the first check-up Carolina and baby Sharleen had ever had. Due to her malnourished state, the baby was put on a protein supplement formula. Caroline has blossomed as a result of receiving 3 healthy meals a day and Sharleen has developed into a happy, healthy baby girl.

Agnes

Agnes was born into a family of eight children. Agnes dropped out of school in form three (primary) after her parents were not able to pay her school fees. Agnes was married at age 14 after dropping out of school and has four children. Agnes burns firewood to sell charcoal to support her family. She also does casual labor. They live in a semi-permanent mud house with no piped water and electricity. As for bedding, they use cardboard as mattresses and bed sheets. In her rural village, Agnes has to walk 3 hours to fetch 20 liters of water.

Both ladies villages are in close proximity to Maralal, the crossroad for trade in Samburu. Upon graduation, the ladies will return to their rural area. They are planning on getting a microfinance loan from
WOMEN ENTERPRISE FUND (WEF) School uniforms are mandatory in Kenya, so a steady source of income will be supplying the local schools and boarding schools in the district as well as repairs and dressmaking from their Maralal based business.

As well as tailoring our students have learned valuable business, money management, and healthy lifestyle skills from the volunteers who have visited and shared their knowledge during their training. As they approach the final quarter of their twelve-month long training with us the ladies are eager to begin the next, exciting phase of their new life.

Thank you so much for your support and making this all possible.

Warmest regards,

Jennifer Hughes-Bystrom

Learning how to make school uniforms

Our first three months of training.

Our first quarterly assessment test.

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