School receives Sh7.5 million to help reduce teenage pregnancies

Mogotio, Kenya: After several reported cases of teenage pregnancies and early marriages, girls at a secondary school in Mogotio sub-county now have a reason to smile.

The girls who have been at the mercy of sex predators, are set to benefit after the Japanese government donated funds to construct a 200 bed capacity dormitory at a ceremony attended by Japanese Ambassador to Kenya at the school's ground.

The donor, through Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects will also construct two permanent classrooms and secure two water tanks.

Boda Boda operators have been preying on the girls by offering them free lifts but disappear as soon as the girls become pregnant.

The girls, mainly from Mogotio constituency, have been preyed on by men who vanish as soon as the girls become pregnant adversely affecting education in the area.

The project received a grant of Sh7.5 million that will also be used to purchase 52 beds with the objective of improving the school education environment.

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Oldebes Secondary school started with only three students and two members of staff in 2009. The school did its first KCSE examinations in 2013 with a total of 24 candidates. Currently the school has 262 students.

Speaking during the groundbreaking ceremony, Japanese ambassador to Kenya Tatsushi Terada congratulated the school for initiating the project and encouraged the community to work together in order to successfully complete the project .

According to the school's board of management, headed by Simon Kiprono Chelugui, part of the money will help set up water harvesting and storage facilities.

"Besides retaining girls at school, the initiative will keep boys away from social ills like drug and alcohol abuse. We thank the donors for this gesture. Now we will focus on setting up a boys dormitory, administration block, teachers' quarters and playing ground," said Chelugui.

The board of management and parents, alarmed by the high number of pregnancies in the area, wrote a proposal to Grant Assistance for GPG, funded by the Japanese Government, in 2012.

"The proposal sailed through after waiting for a reply for two years. The school has never received such a huge amount of money. We want to build the best dormitories and classrooms in the region," explained Chelugui.