The e-mentoring project retaining Rusinga girls in school
What you need to know:
- Among the problems teenage schoolgirls grapple with is teenage pregnancy.
- Some have ended up in child marriages, while others have been introduced to child labour as house helps.
Adolescence is proving to be one of the most difficult stages of life for Homa Bay girls. Challenges abound, some of which have tainted the image of the county.
Among the problems they grapple with is teenage pregnancy. Some have ended up in child marriages, while others have been introduced to child labour as house helps, for instance. This explains why most schools here have fewer girls than boys across classes.
Mr Julius Omuga, an education activist and member of the Elimu Yetu Coalition, says many teenage girls have dropped out of Homa Bay schools because of puberty-related problems that leave them vulnerable to sexual and gender-based violence.
“There is a big variance in the number of pupils in lower primary and upper primary. More than a quarter of girls are likely to drop out of school when they get to Class Eight."
The problem extends to secondary schools. “Besides, girls tend to record dismal academic performance because of challenges they face. Something needs to be done to address the problem,” he says.
Solutions
Several interventions have been introduced. Early this year, Homa Bay adopted the County Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) Policy, which highlights milestones and gaps in the war on SGBV.
The county says its defilement prevalence is 30.1 per cent, much higher than the national defilement prevalence of 7.1 per cent. The policy highlights solutions to different problems and promotes involvement of all stakeholders in protecting the teenagers.
In this regard, non-governmental organisations have come up with remedial strategies. Among them is Dream Believe Repeat, which started a project that empowers adolescent girls through the Internet.
Girls from select secondary schools are grouped, given an Internet-enabled computer, and linked to mentors from other countries who engage them on Zoom. Dream Believe Repeat Director Moses Weke says he came up with the idea after realising that girls in Homa Bay were struggling to stay in school.
“My partner and I were concerned why girls were leaving school," Mr Weke says.
The programme is being undertaken on Rusinga Island and has helped intensify the fight against teen pregnancies. The mentors motivate the girls and boost their confidence. They also discuss sex education, consent and choice, self-management, meditation, development and growth mindset.
Mr Weke says speakers from different European and Asian countries have been encouraging the girls to aspire to leadership. “We want the girls to defy the odds to achieve success in their lives. Most of them share different stories of the struggles they are undergoing, but we want them to focus on their studies.”
Reducing dropout rate
Mr Weke adds that the skills offered are passed to other students who have yet to be introduced to the programme. Besides fighting teenage pregnancy, it has also helped in reducing school dropouts.
Another objective is to fight defilement, which ruins the lives of many schoolgirls. Beneficiaries get free sanitary towels. Lack of sanitary towels has been blamed for teenage pregnancies due to sex for pads. Most victims are from vulnerable families.
Mr Weke says they source sanitary towels then distribute them to schools. “Sanitary towels can also be donated directly to schools. Doing so will help secure the future of many girls.”
He says a number of girls dropped out after getting pregnant. Some married prematurely upon realising that they were pregnant. “The moment a girl has conceived, the next action she thinks of is how to get someone to marry her, hence jeopardising her education.”
Mr Weke argues that child marriages are a serious obstacle to the education of many girls.
Students perform during a forum organised by Dream Believe Repeat on Rusinga island in Homa Bay County on July 22, 2023.
On July 22, the organisation held a leadership forum at Kaswanga Girls’ Secondary School, where some of the mentors were present. Beneficiaries got a chance to interact with them one on one.
Career pursuit
Ambassador Pamela Mboya Girls’ Secondary School chief principal Margaret Temesi was the keynote speaker. She urged girls to stick to their academic dreams without being hoodwinked by sex pests.
“Let schoolgirls set their academic goals and stick to achieving them. I urge them to avoid men or boys who lure them into sex,” Ms Temesi said.
She also urged parents to stop assigning their responsibilities to teachers. “Let parents monitor their children keenly to enable them to know how and when to correct them in case they are engaging in bad behaviours,” Temesi said.
Ms Gertrude Wanyonyi, the principal of Kaswanga Girls’ Secondary School, expressed confidence that the programme will further build the girls psychologically and socially.
“The mentorship is building the girls and this will enable them to grow when they know what they should do. It also enables the students to build an academic network through interaction with professionals and fellow students,” Ms Wanyonyi said.
Marion Achieng, a student at Kamasengre, says that through the programme, she now understands her value as a female student. “I am able to identify bad peer influence. I have witnessed other girls failing in their studies because of mistakes they committed while in school,” she says.
Delvine Atichi, a student at Kaswanga, says the programme has enabled her to lead her peers in the right direction in the absence of an adult.
