HOLISTIC UWEZO GIRLS EMPOWERMENT IN KIBERA, KENYA

Recently, Kenya experienced very high rates of school drop-outs amongs girls due to teenage pregnancies and early marriages. All this has been associated with high poverty levels and lack of proper life skills that would especially enable girls to make informed choices when engaging in harmful activities.

To address these challenges in Kibera, Kopin and our Kenyan long-term partner organisation Amani Kibera developed the Holistic Uwezo Girls Empowerment (HUGE) project, which is anchored in three main thematic programmes:

(1) Fashion and design school;
(2) Youth leadership mentorship and life skill education;
(3) Organisational and project management skills development.

The project foresees to empower 60 young women and girls aged between ten to 24, as well as 20 young single mothers and out-of-school girls from the Kibera slums near Nairobi, through enrolment in the three training categories.

The beneficiaries will be equipped with skills that will not only make them employable but which they can use to start and effectively manage their own businesses or for them to identify other livelihood pathways through mentorship.

In addition, the capacities of Amani Kibera’s staff who will manage this project will also be developed, enabling them to plan and manage impactful projects long-term.