The value of education in girls’ lives is indisputable. Schools are more than a place of learning as they offer a safe space for social support and protection from violence and exploitation. Yet, many girls and women in Kwale County, Kenya are still held back by social norms and traditional practices such as early marriage, early and unintended pregnancies influencing their educational right and opportunities.
“I know a friend who is at home, and she would like to come back school, how can UNESCO help?”
This was the plea of the many girls we met during a joint fact-finding mission by UNESCO, and Girl Child Network (GCN) in Kwale County, where UNESCO in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, and with support from PRADA, is carrying out an advocacy campaign to support girls’ education. Through the initiative UNESCO reached out to 300 girls in Kwale county
This initiative is an extension of the keeping the Girl in the picture campaign, which was launched by UNESCO and members of the Global Education Coalition’s Gender Flagship #LearningNeverStops campaign
Kwale County
Kwale County is in the Southern Kenya and borders Tanzania to the Southwest, and the Indian Ocean to the East and Southeast. The County has 41 Secondary Schools with a teacher to pupil ratio of 1:35. Before the pandemic, the County had high number of out-of-school learners with many girls affected from early teenage pregnancies, early marriages, FGM, drug and substance abuse, poverty to lack of self-awareness, insecurities to peer pressure of looking for blessers.
These challenges were further exposed and amplified following the COVID-19 pandemic and its disruption to education. This is why Kwale County was identified as one of the counties where deliberate efforts and structures must be put in place to safeguard the progress made on girls’ education and ensure girls’ learning continuity and retention.
Together as one
We deployed a multisectoral advocacy approach bringing on board the County government, Ministry of Education, community volunteers and youth network. It’s time to turn the crisis into an opportunity to build back equal. 10 schools namely Dori Girls Secondary School, Kinondo Mixed Secondary School, Magaoni Mixed Secondary School, Mivumoni Mixed Secondary School, Kingwede Girls Secondary school, Bongwe Mixed Secondary School, Madago Mixed secondary School, Ukunda Mixed Secondary School, Mwazambo Girls Secondary School and Vingujini Mixed Secondary School are beneficiaries.
Through the community volunteers, the four administrative sub-counties of Matuga, Kinango, Lunga lunga and Msambweni were able to benefit from the advocacy and the sensitization efforts. The community volunteers are working closely with youth. groups namely, Tulinde Future Yetu, a community-based organization working to strengthen local youth- and girl-led initiatives on girls' education through intercultural dialogue and interschool debates at the local level
I work closely with the schools on sensitization of community members, particularly the girl’s parents or guardians, on the importance of education for girls and boys, training of girls and boys on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and offer psychosocial support and life skills.
The reading clubs
Through the advocacy initiative, 10 reading clubs were established in the schools to support and empower 300 learners comprising of 30 pupils (20 girls and 10 boys) from each of the 10 beneficiary schools on:
- Improving their literacy skills.
- Peer to peer mentorship and support on life skills.
- Information sharing on SRHR issues, school funding opportunities (bursaries).
- Supporting with educational kits (backpack, stationeries, sanitary towels).
Moreover, the project is focusing on promoting girls’ access to and confidence using digital learning opportunities. and locally driven advocacy initiatives for girls’ education and empowerment.
Many of the girls we interacted with had no idea of what STEM is. Therefore, this was an opportune moment to introduce Girls in ICT, STEM mentorship programme with the schools. Through the deployment of battery/solar powered digital libraries in the selected girls' schools and improve the internet connectivity through the National Optic Fiber Backbone Infrastructure (NOFBI), to facilitate access to Open Educational Resources (OERs) and use of ICT learning platforms in both online and offline/off-grid modes. In addition, ICT boot camp for girls on coding and robotics and other foundational 21st century digital skills will be conducted.
This project targets girls and boys aged between 12 to 18 years, and will build on existing related projects in Kenya particularly UNESCO’s STEM mentorship program, UNESCO Digital Libraries initiative, The Offline Intranet Resource Centre, and Huawei/UNESCO School connectivity project.