Young Women’s Leadership Initiative Webpage Updated!

The webpage for the East African Young Women’s Leadership Initiative has been updated! The new page includes summaries of leadership and rights training workshops, recent photos, and updated and more detailed biographies of each young woman.

Since the last workshops, the women have been busy with their schooling. The Kenyan women completed their first term in April, had a short break for the Easter holidays, and began their second term on May 7. Despite rampant floods in Kenya, rendering many roads impassable, all the young women made it safely back to school. They have also successfully registered for the national exam, which is held nationwide on November 5, 2012. The young women need to pass the exam to go on to study for a university degree, so they will be hitting their school books hard the rest of the year.

Unfortunately, there was a fire at one of the schools last month that destroyed an entire dormitory. One theory is the fire was caused by a fault that was struck by lightning. Thankfully, the fire took place when the women were in class so none were harmed, but it destroyed all the belongings of many women, including one of the program participants, Hellen Naipanoi. About 350 girls at the school lost most or all of their belongings. The program has since replaced Hellen’s bedding, clothes, and books, but the school is looking to raise funds to rebuild the dormitory.

The Tanzanian women are on a short break before they begin their second term. The young women did well in school during the first term, but unfortunately one woman, Peninah Yolamu, already an orphan, lost her grandmother and is struggling with the loss.

The young women continually face challenges (including illness), but receive great support from the program coordinator, Daniel Salau, and other mentors. To support the young women’s school fees and leadership development, click here.

Program coordinator Salau is also seeking to study again; Daniel recently applied and was accepted into a master’s degree program in climate change in Kenya. We are very excited for him.

Photo courtesy of Daniel Salau