By Anande Mirisho | Managing Director
As we start a new year, we are reminded of the people who benefit the most from our projects and Upendo is an example of the hundreds of girls that we have helped over the years.
Upendo came from a family with 6 children. She was the third born in her family and went to Nkoasenga Primary school where she graduated standard seven in 2009. Both of her parents do small farming businesses to get the daily food and necessities for their family The children are a very big part of that work, and not all of them attended school.
Upendo was selected for secondary school and attended for two years but had to stop going to school because of family problems that they were facing and they could no longer pay any contribution for school or afford the uniform she needed to attend.
Upendo heard about the Jifundishe Free Library from a friend and decided to move from Nkoasenga Village in 2015 and found a friend that she could stay with so she could join Jifundishe's Independent Study program. They share a room and all the costs of living. Her older brother and mother used to help them by sending maize and beans to provide food. Upendo started the program and passed the first exam for Form 2. In 2016 she tried to pass the Form 4 exam, but did not do well, so she stayed another year and did pass last year.
She went home to visit her family and the family thought she is now grown up and she can stay home and help them by getting married. Coming back to Jifundishe to continue with her studies was not their priority. She refused to accept that her education was over and came back to the village to study for another year. Jifundishe is paying all her exam fees and hoping that she will get one more credit to continue with her studies. Her ambition is to become a teacher in a high school.
The Jifundishe Free Library provides a safe, accessible and supportive place for young girls who are at risk for early marriage, pregnancy and trafficking to come and get an education. They are able to take control of their own educational experience which leads to them having the confidence to take control of their lives.
Thanks to all of our donors who help make this library exist to help these amazing young girls!
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
