Help Shining Hope for Communities

Shining Hope for Communities

Middletown , Connecticut

Cause Description:
The Kibera School for Girls: In Kenya’s Kibera slum women are denied education and 66% of young women are engaged in prostitution by the age of 16. Although the UN estimates that more than 1.5 million people live within Kibera’s two square mile area, the Kenyan Government views Kibera as an illegal settlement and therefore does not provide any services or schools. The only schools in Kibera are informally run and lack proper classroom management procedures and resources. Children are often beaten for not knowing answers, and lessons are geared towards rote memorization and passing the country’s standardized exams, a feat which no Kibera school has ever accomplished. Furthermore, only one third of the slum’s children attend these schools. Of this small group, less than a quarter are girls, as patriarchy is deeply rooted within Kenyan culture and families dedicate their limited resources towards educating boys. Born and raised in Kibera, Kennedy Odede co-founder of the school for girls, saw young women lose their hopes of ever attaining an education and leaving the slum, as they were forced into commercial sex work at early ages. He knew young girls who were raped, and saw frequent domestic violence—acts that are more likely to occur when girls are denied education. Given the dire circumstances created by Kibera’s extreme poverty Shining Hope for Communities, a grassroots organization, is making change! We are building The Kibera School for Girls! Construction begins July 15th 2009 and the school will open on August 20th. This school is the FIRST school for girls in Kibera and the ONLY free school in the area. This elementary school serves Kibera’s neediest girls, focusing on those most vulnerable to a life of prostitution and sexual abuse. The Kibera School for Girls strives to empower the young women of Kibera to imagine and then enact their own solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems by providing a superior education. The Kibera School for Girls creates life long learners who take with them the skills to change their own lives and feel a responsibility to give back to others.

Type: Employment/Empowerment
Listed on iGive since: July 2009
iGive members supporting: 14

Website: www.hopetoshine.org

Raised through iGive: $17.93 across 1 check, November 2009 to November 2009.

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