Baringo girls benefit from Sh8 million development fund

By Robert Kiplagat

BARINGO, KENYA: Vulnerable girls in pastoral Marigat district in Baringo County are set to benefit from Sh7.9million partnership between Kenya Girl guides Association and Barclays Bank.

The money is expected to enable the girls venture into income-generating activities.

More than 50 girls from pastoral communities such as Pokot, Tugen, Ilchamus and Turkana who dropped out of school and have been engaging in immoral activities such as prostitution and illegal brewing benefitted from the program.

Speaking in Marigat during the flagship of the program, Baringo Kenya Girl guides Association Commissioner Beatrice Wafula said the association realized that the girls aged between 18 and 30 years in the area were engaging in immoral activities to make ends meet.

“We have trained the 50 girls from various communities within Marigat who dropped out of school because of pregnancies and in order to make ends meet involve themselves in immoral activities,” said Wafula.

Wafula said they partnered with Barclays to empower the women on ventures and equip them with entrepreneurial skills to ensure that they engage in meaningful activities that can improve their lives.

Apart from empowering them economically, she said, the association rehabilitates the girls and moulds their characters to detach themselves from drug abuse.

She added that they have consulted with the adult education department in the area so that they will enrol the young mothers who are interested to go back to school to acquire education.

Some of the beneficiaries who spoke to The Standard expressed their optimism that the program will help them eradicate poverty and reform their characters.