Kenya, Kangeta

Kenya, Kangeta – with the support of our private benefactors in 2009 we have sent 21 girls to secondary school offering them an alternative to poverty by helping them building a brilliant future!

“Thanks to the sponsorship, more and more smiles and hopes appear on the young girls’ faces.” Sister Lucy, the project coordinator of the Good Shepherd Sisters in this small village, tells us that once children turn eleven it becomes hard to find a sponsor as all the attention is focused on smaller children. Especially for girls, this means they will not have a chance to find a dignified job. Their destiny is already written if no one helps them.

Since 1990 the Sisters of the Good Shepherd work in Kangeta with children, girls and women in difficulty trying to help them cope with an oppressive culture discriminating women, which does not recognize their right to study, to inherit property, to choose their spouse. The Sisters offer them the opportunity to go to school and learn skills to find a job and become independent. Thanks to Italian, Irish and English benefactors last year a group of 21 girls from poor families, were offered the opportunity to attend high schools. These girls have proved to be proficient and have shown a great desire to continue in their studies.

The sponsored girls have been selected on two main criteria which are: their social situation (family income, family situation…) and their previous school results. Through home visits and casual discussions the sisters also tried to determine which girls were the most willing to go back to school and the most likely to succeed, so that the program would be more effective. These girls come from extremely poor families: the parents, when they are still alive, are unemployed or do casual work. All the money they earn is dedicated to food since the families are often very large with an average of 6 children in each family. These situations often lead to divorce or alcoholism, which deprive the children from a safe and loving environment. They should focus on their studies and ask themselves what are their plans for the future, and yet they have to look for a job or take care of the younger siblings to help the parents.

For the next academic year which begins in January 2010, 14 more girls have asked us to help them in enrolling in secondary school, bringing the total number of supported girls to 35.

With only 260 Euro we can send a girl to secondary school and offer her an alternative to poverty by helping her building a brilliant future!

Contact us if you want to take part in our scholarship program and help one of the girls and by making her dream of being a doctor, a lawyer or a nurse, come true. We’ll forward you letters, school reports and pictures of your “sponsored daughter”. Sister Lucy and the girls thank all those who will offer them a chance for a better life.