The reason why..
When I was done with my last interview at Maparasha, I was drained. Physically from the trip, emotionally from the tales.
The things I saw and heard hit me with the force of an air bag, changing me. This was not the kind of thing you picked and dropped. Those girls, their faces, their quiet voices, remained embedded in my head.
The boys have their struggles too. I spoke to the headboy. A precocious boy who is the first in his family to walk through the gates of a secondary school.
School holidays are the hardest for these kids; and the most uncertain. For the boys it’s the constant pressure to drop out and look for work. Provide for the family.
For the girls, it’s the fear. That money will be scarce and you could be married off or just barred from going back. Each time schools open, there is one less girl. A human conveyor belt. That is how they ended up as nine girls in a school of over a hundred boys. Nine girls who cannot move to a girls school because of lack of funds. Nine girls who are desperate to stay in school but are also desperate to leave.
“Once while walking down the corridor, I had to pass in between a group of boys lounging casually. I saw a sudden movement out of the corner of my eye, then I felt it. One of them had flicked my bottom,” one girl told me. And when she looked back she could not attach the hand to a face.
I have only written about three of the nine girls. Some were away for a school function. As for the rest, you’d need a locksmith and a stick of dynamite to get them to open up. One of them was at home. She is a day scholar because her mom cannot afford to pay her boarding fees.
Of these nine girls, four are finalists and will be sitting their KCSE exam in March next year. Five are in Form 2 and cannot remain in the school when the others leave. Their parents are hard pressed. This is why I started this initiative to raise funds to transfer them and take them through Form 3 and Form 4 in a girls school. So far two people have contacted me and each offered to adopt a girl until they finish school. That leaves me with 3 girls. The fundraising is ongoing.
It will take 100k for one girl to remain in school until completion. Times 3 girls. The target is 300k. So far 180k has been raised.
The five girls cannot stay in the school when the rest finish because it has been recommissioned to a boys school. Whether they like it or not, they will have to leave at the end of this academic year. If they don’t get help they might have to drop out.
We may not all be able to travel to Maparasha ( people still ask me where that is) to bring about change. But if these girls get the chance to stay in school then we will create a path for them to do whatever they dream of doing. And they can institute change in their communities.
As Malala Yousafzai put it, one child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world.
Help me, help a girl in need.
To donate, you can click on this link and send in whatever you have:
For those who have just joined class, here is the link to the whole series:
