Vanga is a deeply patriarchal community, and it still narrows what a girl's life is expected to be: marriage, childbearing, being a wife, and basic education if she gets that far. Mentorship exists to show girls that their environment does not decide their future.
Sessions run in school, for Grade 7 girls, led by community champions who also advocate for girls' rights locally. The curriculum was designed for this community: self-awareness, stress management, puberty and menstruation, menstrual hygiene, teenage pregnancy, girls' rights, and how to become a leader.
Reading comes with it
Grade 7 literacy sessions run alongside the mentorship, because some girls still cannot read and write at the level their age and grade expects. Combining the two builds enough confidence to speak up in the sessions, in the classroom, and for themselves.
The girls we have walked this road with have kept going: every girl in the 2023 KCPE cohort we supported moved on to secondary school.
