Mrs Kidero leads women in empowering girls in Ng'ando area

Nairobi first lady, Dr Susan Mboya Kidero joins a local artist, Size 8 and students from various schools at Dagoreti Training School, in dancing during the launch of Girls mentorship programme [PHOTO: GOVEDI ASUTSA/STANDARD]

NAIROBI: Nairobi City County First Lady, Dr Susan Mboya- Kidero and leading women leaders, entrepreneurs, media personalities and business owners mentored more than 1,000 girls from 10 high schools in Ng’ando area in the “Beyond the class room mentorship program”.

Mrs Kidero committed to continue supporting the program to grow in the other sixteen Sub counties in Nairobi County. Says Mrs Kidero “I will ensure this program grows from strength to strength and give young women the chance to create a sustainable future in the face of poverty. Research shows the single most sustainable strategy for achieving poverty alleviation is the education of women and girls and this what Zawadi Africa strives to achieve. During the program the girls were taught effective decision-making, goal-setting, building self-esteem and self -discipline, and the Importance of education/staying in School. Other lessons include time management, aking personal responsibility, personal health and hygiene, managing finances and negotiation”.

During the Mentorship program guest Mentors and mentees enjoyed a fun and information-filled morning culminating in an entertainment session by popular Gospel artist Size 8 (Linet Munyali). Size 8 urged students to abstain from Sex and Alcoholism and instead focus on their education and making a livelihood for themselves.

Says Mrs Kidero “We all know that for the girl child in Africa, growing up remains a major challenge with a high number of girls dropping out of school each year for various reasons including pregnancies and early marriages as well as health and hygiene issues. Studies have shown that mentorship of young girls is a key element of ensuring that young girls remain focused on achieving their life goals, and reaching them while they are still young, is critical to be able to influence and shape their values and mindsets”

The Beyond the Classroom program has been successfully carried out in high schools in Nyanza, Kwale, Kilifi and Kitui, through a joint effort with the State Department and county officials. To date, Zawadi has held mentoring workshops for over 8,000 girls in 200 schools. Zawadi’s long term goal is to reach over 200,000 African girls by 2020 through this program.

In 2011 Zawadi Africa created an auxiliary program, a high school outreach program called “Beyond the Classroom”, that aims to influence and shape the lives of young girls through exposure to positive role models, and life-skills that will help to open their minds to the possibilities and help them to achieve their full potential. In this mentoring program, Zawadi university alumni and women role models from the community teach girls critical life lessons to positively influence their behaviors and attitudes, and give the girls an opportunity to learn from women who share similar backgrounds (rural/poor) and whose stories these girls could relate to.

Zawadi Africa is planning a one-day Mentorship event that is being held by the Zawadi Africa Education Fund on the 20th of March 2015 at Dagoretti Training School, Nairobi from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm.

The Zawadi Africa Education Fund (http://zawadiafrica.org/wp/) is a Non-profit organization that was established to secure scholarships for academically gifted African girls from economically disadvantaged backgrounds to enable them to attend top colleges and Universities in the US and in Africa. The Zawadi Africa Education Fund is based on the highly successful Kennedy/Tom Mboya Student airlifts of the 1960's-a pre-independence Kenyan project where gifted students were sponsored to higher education overseas and came back to become leaders in Kenya.

In 2002, Dr. Susan Mboya, daughter of Tom Mboya, took up the mantle and created the Zawadi Africa Education Program. To date the program has provided full scholarships to over 360 students at over 65 colleges and universities including but not limited to Yale University, Harvard, MIT, Smith, Duke, McGill University, University of Toronto, University of Cape Town and Kwame Nkrumah University in Ghana to name but a few.

However we know that for the girl child in Africa, growing up remains a major challenge with a high number of girls dropping out of school each year for various reasons including pregnancies and early marriages as well as health and hygiene issues. Studies have shown that mentorship of young girls is a key element of ensuring that young girls remain focused on achieving their life goals, and reaching them while they are still young, is critical to be able to influence and shape their values and mindsets.

It is with this in mind that in 2011 Zawadi Africa created an auxiliary program, a high school outreach program called Beyond the Classroom, that aims to influence and shape the lives of young girls through exposure to positive role models, and life-skills that will help to open their minds to the possibilities and help them to achieve their full potential. In this mentoring program, Zawadi university alumni and women role models from the community teach the girls critical life lessons to positively influence their behaviors and attitudes, and give the girls an opportunity to learn from women who share similar backgrounds (rural/poor) and whose stories these girls could relate to. The program teaches, among other lessons, Effective Decision-Making, Goal-Setting, Building Self-Esteem and Self -Discipline, and the Importance of Education/staying in School. Other lessons include Time Management, Taking Personal Responsibility, Personal Health and Hygiene, Managing Finances and Negotiation.