By Bob Agwanda.

When Golda Ayodo was invited for the first time at Amilo Primaty School within Muhoroni District for a prize giving day, something struck her which she could understand in regard to the event and while heading home she was disturbed why during the entire exercise there were no girls pupils who were rewarded.

She saw first hand those girls who were being rewarded were being given prices just for the sake of it that they never deserved. “When I asked why, I was told that girls were dropping out of school and they never deserved any reward. Hence I was left with a homework of what I can do and change the whole scenario” Ayodo adds.

Ayodo, who holds masters and is presently pursuing her PHD at Kenyatta University in Kenya, says she was pained so much and it resulted to her calling friends and together they formed Golden Girls Foundation which agitates and helps educate girls within the region.

“The club was my brainchild and basically it is about giving girls better conducive atmosphere for learning as after my research I discovered that they said girls major problems were uniforms, sanitary situations and lack of talks between them and their mothers which resulted to their dropping out. We started collections of clothes, sanitary towels, and uniforms, to give to the girls who were schooling there” she adds.

She says that so far they have contributed school uniforms, panties, and slippers, for all the girls within the institution, together with home clothes, saying most uniforms are always at the same time are used as home clothes .

“Looking back I can say that we have made a mark. Though the girls are home based, we always have weekly mentoring sessions with professionals who are members of our group, like doctors, teachers, lawyers etc etc, and surprisingly one of our product managed 430 marks in last years KCPE national exams, and her follower, another girl, got 312 marks. They have all been admitted to Provincial Secondary Schools and we are presently raising funds for their education” she adds.

“The young girl whom led the exams called Cynthia Midira’s mother is blind and her father is just an ordinary farmer, she has done us proud together with Beryl Akinyi who is part of our programme. We started this programme with seven girls and we managed to maintain that to date. But lamentably, Beryl got pregnant after exams and we are to take her back to school once she delivers”says the school’s Headteacher Mr.Auma Ouma adds.

Presently at Amilo Primary school the pupil populace has doubled from 392 to 456 as a result of what the area residents sees as achievement and motivation of girl-child.

“The community has really embraced their effort as the school was 10th within the zone in 2010 but during last year’s exams it became number five which is real motivation” the headteacher said. He adds that his school was supplied sl with revision papers and we tried to make sure that they did not have any societal limitation,

“Amilo is a pilot project but we are moving on though we do not have funds as we deep our hands in our pockets and contributes” Ayodo says ,she however laments. that presently thy are looking for people who can sponsor a single child at Kshs 1,500 per year to enable her to learn or any form of contributions be it material or finance.

“One thousand five hundred per girl per year is not much, its something anyone can afford , we do not have donors ,however we expect donors to really help us as we are really constraint, while empowering the girl, parents must also be involved “Ayodo says.

She laments that girls within the luo culture setting are really over burdened, as she goes to school, after that does domestic chores resulting to very limited time for studies if any.

“Its not the girl’s responsibility to cater for the family. Let girls be girls. We should always encourage them because girls are softer at heart and needs a lot of understanding” she adds. She also says that the major resistance to girl child education presently within the larger luo Nyanza revolves around culture, infrastructure, and lack of concentration while they go to school.

“This is one pupil who passes through cane plantation while going home and market places while hungry; surely she will be lured to any form of a vice which might jeopardize her schooling” Ayodo adds.

She says that though million mile journey begins with a step, they are determined to concur the entire luo Nyanza with limited resources and faith they have.

Ayodo began her schooling at Maseno Girls Primary Boarding School before going to St.Albert’s Ulanda for her secondary education and later left for Southern Adventist University in Ternnese USA where she graduated with Bachelor of Business Administration(Accounts) before doing her Masters which rsulted to her graduating in Accounts and Marketing, she is presently persuing her PHD at Kenya University in Accounts and Management.

“People thought I did social work, I think God made me do Accounts so that I could account for girls who has problems studying”, she jokes as we ends up the interview”

ENDS