Scholarship Fund 2016 International project
Goal: Help over 100 Kenyan girls receive education and avoid early forced married in doing so.
For Kenyans living in extreme poverty, a girl’s dowry is an important source of income. Many parents turn to child marriage, which traditionally involves female genital mutilation, as a means of economic survival. These young girls face a multitude of health risks, both psychological and physical, which deprive them of the chance to create income, receive an education or become fully engaged members of society.
Keep Girls Safe Foundation works with survivors of Female genital mutilation, survivors of forced marriages, and teen mothers who have fled the horror of arranged marriages in Kenya, to access opportunities for education and offer wide-ranging services including mentorship, counseling, and child-parent reconciliation to empower girls. We work in the village to promote health, sanitation and child rights issues to create vibrant livelihoods where leaders value girls and protect them from all cycles of abuse, manipulation, forced female genital mutilation and early marriages.
What is the issue, problem, or challenge?
Female genital mutilation and early marriages greatly diminish the opportunity for young girls to pursue their personal advancement, development and empowerment. Without productive skills and knowledge provided through education, girls will remain victims of sexual abuse and manipulation, forced female genital mutilation and early child marriages. 40% of girls in Narok County drop out of primary schools at the age 12-15 due to poverty, teen pregnancy and early child marriage.
How will this project solve this problem?
Keep Girls Safe Foundation would like to help these girls have access to education by paying their school fees and ensuring that they remain in school. We help girls become resilient and wise by offering counseling and mentorship services as well as giving legal assistance where needed. Girls will be taught personal hygiene, reproductive health, and sex education during counseling.
Potential Long Term Impact
Girls are better prepared to make their own decisions and take responsibility over their lives; have better understanding of their sexual and reproductive health and their role as women in the society. Community leaders take greater action to end child marriage and enforce child rights; girls are better protected from violence, exploitation or abuse; communities increasingly accept alternative roles of girls beyond marriage and accept them as potential future leaders and breadwinners.
Funding Information
Total Funding Goal: $50,000