Life-Changing Mentorship for Tanzanian Girls

In mid-January AfricAid staff returned to work after a well-earned break, and 423 dedicated Kisa Scholars returned to their respective schools and resumed their Kisa leadership and life skills training.

One of the schools we partner with to deliver the Kisa Curriculum is Orkeeswa Secondary School, a unique rural school serving a mostly Maasai population. Orkeeswa students come from a community that is marginalized and impoverished, with very limited access to education.

The Kisa Curriculum is normally taught to girls in their final two years of secondary school – Forms 5 and 6, also known as Advanced Levels. But at schools like Orkeeswa, very few girls enjoy the kind of circumstances that allow them to make it that far. So in 2013 AfricAid decided to recruit Form 3 and 4 girls and teach the Kisa Curriculum to them. Just having made it to secondary school is a massive achievement and these girls are already considered potential community leaders. So teaching them leadership and life skills is very appropriate and is proving to be a great success.

The new school year for Forms 3 and 4 commenced in January and we have recently finished recruitment at Orkeeswa. 12 girls have just started Year 1; last year’s Year 1 girls (18 of them) have just started Year 2 of the program. Kisa Mentors Eligrania and Gladys have been delighted with the progress of the Scholars to date and are looking forward to the year ahead, as they watch the transformation of these young women, especially in terms of confidence and self-belief.

Reaching out to girls like those who attend Orkeeswa would not be possible without the generosity shown by our Global Giving donors. Again we say thank you very much. We hope that each donor gets as much satisfaction out the success of the Kisa Project and the achievements of Kisa Scholars as we do. Please keep giving – to date we have raised almost half of our Global Giving target of $75,000 to keep the Project going.

Links:

• Kisa Project Webpage