“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” – Nelson Mandela

Mama Dorca Nyong’o has nursed a dream over several years: to see the girl child reach her full potential through access to quality education. To achieve this dream, Mama who is now well into her eighties has been mobilizing support and spearheading a vigorous initiative to build a girls hostel for secondary school girls in Ratta.

The girls’ hostel is to provide shelter for disadvantaged secondary school girls where they will have better learning conditions away from the vagrancies of life. This initiative, once fulfilled, will also contribute to the UN Millennium Development Goal of improving girl child education.

Currently, the school drop-out rate for girls in Nyanza is over 50%, largely due to teenage pregnancy and poverty. The number of orphans and vulnerable children has increased dramatically in the past two decades, especially due to the HIV and AIDS pandemic, resulting in many children either being raised by poor aging grandparents, or by fellow children. The girl child faces additional disadvantages as she often bears the burden of domestic chores while at the same time facing high risks of sexual exploitation and abuse.

In an attempt to avert these risks, Mama Dorca shared her dream with fellow members of Ratta Mothers’ Union, women’s social welfare and economic development arm of ACK where she has been an active Patron over several years. In response, the mothers’ union members in their individual capacities have provided shelter to some disadvantaged children, giving them a rare opportunity to access education with minimal interruption. However, they realized this is not adequate to address the problem in terms of scope and numbers of disadvantaged children at risk.
The mothers are keen to see a sustainable solution. This solution partly lies in building a girls’ hostel as a first step to ensure security and safe learning environment for the girls. On their part, the mothers have donated a piece of land for the construction of the hostel; contributed building materials such as ballast, sand, stones, worth Ksh 898,800.

In addition to this, the mothers reached out to their daughters and friends resulting in the creation of “Friends of the Mothers Union” (FORAMU), an informal group of young women who quickly organized modest fundraising activities such as “Three Times a Woman”, and “Nya Nam Nite” both held in Nairobi on 7th May 2006 and 28 July, 2006 respectively to support the mothers initiative. To this end, an additional Ksh 1,200,000 has been raised and banked towards this project. However, the total projected cost of the project is estimated to be Ksh 8,000,000.

To help meet this shortfall, Hon. Phoebe Asiyo, Chairperson of Caucus for Women’s Leadership, and a renowned champion for women’s development, has graciously accepted to officiate at a major funds drive and laying of the foundation stone for the Girls’ Hostel, on Sunday 4 October, 2009, at St. Paul’s ACK Church, Ratta. She will be assisted by a number of dynamic ladies who are great supporters of this cause.

We are inviting you to join us in this noble initiative through your generous contributions and/ or participation, to enable these determined mothers. Like Mama Dorca, let’s take a step towards realizing the dream of educating and empowering the girl child, as they say, ‘educating a girl is educating a household.”
May the Lord bless you abundantly for giving.

Payments to: St. Pauls ACK Mothers Group Ratta,
A/C 077136005568, Kenya Commercial Bank, Kisumu Branch.
Dorothy Nyong’o
7th Sense Communications
P.O. Box 15730-00100
Nairobi
Tel/Fax: 3861910
0733 937660

Please find attached invitation card. We look forward to seeing you there and/or receiving your generous contribution.

For those who may not be able to join us in Ratta, together with those who can join us in Nairobi as well as in Ratta, we will get together on Friday 2 October, 2009, at United Kenya Club, Nairobi at 5.30pm for a talk by Dr. Margaret Wanjohi of Starehe Girls Centre on “The Challenges of Rural Education for Girls” and a mini-harambee.

Thank you and Kind Regards

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From: Secretariat-Nyanza Economic Forum
Date: Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 1:43 AM
Subject: A Hostel for Girls in Ratta – Nyanza