WMF is very proud of WMF Scholar Maureen Oduor of Kenya! Maureen is currently studying Development Studies in Tanzania and wanted to return to her secondary school community to empower younger girls to make healthy decisions and provide training on reproductive health. Through the assistance of a Matching Empowerment Grant from WMF, Maureen engaged 40 adolescent girls from the Jera Mixed Secondary School in Ugenya District of Siaya County, Kenya in the Life Skills for Success training program that she created!
Maureen traveled to her community and held the week long training from March 24-28, 2014. Prior to the training, Maureen was tasked with fundraising within her college and support community in Tanzania, connecting with interested parties in the secondary school community in Kenya, and planning her project through Skype conversations with WMF Programs Coordinator, Nicole Baker in Bristol, Vermont, USA. Maureen reached out to her network in the United States and in Japan for assistance in creating the curriculum for her program. Maureen was successful in achieving her fundraising goal through networking, persistence, and believing in the change this project would generate!
Maureen identified the following issues, “A serious problem exist in Jera Mixed Secondary School whereby Adolescent girls aged 12-18 years, face a range of serious reproductive health risks – from unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions to sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS. These reproductive health risks do not only have an immediate impact on their lives and well-being, but long-term effects as well. For instance, high fertility rates coupled with inadequate family planning choices can lead to a woman having multiple children that she cannot afford, or, if a woman contracts HIV and gets sick, she may no longer be able to provide for her children. Unwanted pregnancies among adolescent girls aged 12 – 18 remains the most rampant problem for the school. These pregnancies lead to an increased high school dropout rate, as well as maternal mortality and disabilities associated by unsafe abortion. In 2012/2013 the school lost 15 adolescents’ girls due to teenage pregnancy, 6 cases of unsafe abortion within the school and 2 girls died as a result of unsafe abortion.
Due to Lack of information on sexuality, coupled by high poverty level in Ugenya District, girls tend to be lured by the boys in school and older men around the village for exchange of sex for food, free transport to school and sanitary towel. Majority of girls are day students therefore some walk up to 8 kilometers to and from school, during this time is when men in transport business, using Motorcycles takes advantage of dropping the girls to school for free but they pay brutally by sex. HIV/AIDS new infections among girls in Jera School is on the rise this is attributed to lack of information on sexual reproductive health. As much as boys are also affected, girls carried the bigger burden whereby they interrupt school, they drop out of school and they are victimized while the boy remains not affected.
It is against this backdrop that the project is developed. The project seeks to train 40 girls on Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health and they will form a health education club that will continue providing sex education to the girls and provide peer counseling services to the rest of the school. This is geared to reduce incidences of school dropout among girls due to reproductive health reasons, and empower girls to concentrate on education for better future.”
The Life Skills for Success training goal was to, “…reduce unwanted pregnancy, unsafe abortion, and morbidity among adolescents girls aged 13 -19 years at Jera Mixed Secondary School Siaya County, Kenya by December 2014.”
This will be achieved by the, “Increased capacity of 40 girls peer educators aged 13 – 19 years on adolescent sexual reproductive health information at Jera Mixed Secondary School, Siaya County, by May 2014.”
We are thrilled with the exceptional program Maureen implemented in March 2014 and we look forward to learning about the follow-on activities that will continue to empower the girls from the Jera Mixed Secondary School!
Share in Maureen’s experience below:
God bless Maureen Odour,God bless wells mountain foundation
This is a spectacular example of giving back to the community in a very meaningful and much needed way. We are very proud of Maureen’s efforts. We will look forward to her presenting her project at our big ingathering conference of WMF scholars ( “Empowerment 2015”) to be held in Nairobi in June 2015.
Hi Maureen:
Thanks for taking the lead on this project. Our passion for keeping girls in school is a shared one. Here at Boston University School of Public Health we will continue to support the project as best as we can for sustainability and scaling up! keep up the good work and see you soon!
Monica
May God reward you Maureen and your team. A Good job to be emulated.
Thanks so much am really honoured and soon am giving update of next plan of action
Thanks Monica Onyango I appreciate Boston University efforts. Am so happy to receive and work with Sarah Steven from Boston University from 18th June. Thanks Wells Mountain Foundation and Boston Team.