After a day to settle in at Chairman and Maureen Okundi's home, we set off to meet the girls and the staff at the Ombogo Girl's Academy to plan the week. We met with the principal, George and the Deputy head, Rosemary to develop a plan. Each of us came with a specific project in mind, but we also wanted to be sure to listen to the needs that the staff and students wanted addressed.
I planned to do interviews with some of the young women about their childhood experiences, but there was also other work to do for the school. Julie, the student from Business, was interested in exploring some micro-financing and enterprise project possibilities for the school and students; Kathryn, who has been studying photo-journalism, took on three marketing projects for the school, the Slum Doctor Programme and Western's international service learning program. Doug was interested in exploring the impact of AIDS in the region. Kristi and Shearlean wanted to explore the development of the projects they worked on last year with the journalism club and leadership development. Tim was focused on the development of the long term partnership between Slum Doctor, Western's Service Learning Center and Ombogo.
In addition to these goals, we also were asked to help the school do a needs assessment in a number of different areas identified by the school, including the development of a more consistent power supply, holistic education, and facility development and upgrades.
The school is quite spartan, with basic classrooms, no running water, outdoor latrines and sporadic electricity. Because this area of Kenya floods in the rainy season, there are no good playing fields and the latrines often collapse. The girls and the staff, however, are vibrant and engaged, and the girls report that they are receiving an excellent education.
Ombogo is creating an environment for young women that will have a profound impact on their home communities. Adolescent birthrates are very high in Africa and historically there have been few options for young women to be educated. This scenario is changing in Kenya and there are an increasing number of programs for adolescent girls. The work Ombogo is doing is particularly important because of the deep poverty and high rates of HIV/AIDS in this part of Western Kenya.
As in most developing countries, girls often don't receive the same educational opportunities as boys. According to the Forum for African Women Educationalists, although most girls in Kenya attend primary school, 65% of girls drop out before they complete the Standard 8. According to a report in the CODESIRA Bulletin about the education of girls in Kenya, many of the barriers the girls face include issues related to poverty, reproductive health, pregnancy, gender-biased curriculum, lack of appropriate facilities, sexual harassment by fellow students or teachers, competing domestic responsibilities for young women, lack of role models and a pervasive patriarchal social structure that still places a lower value the education of women in rural cultures. Some of the girls at Ombogo, particularly those from the more rural villages, reported that they were the first girls in their villages to enroll in secondary school and told stories that confirmed these barriers.
The leadership of the school understands, as do most development workers, that if you want to intervene in a community to combat poverty, the most effective strategy is to educate the young women. Many of the young women who are attending Ombogo would be at risk for early marriage and/or at risk for HIV infection themselves without this opportunity.
Kenya is a deeply religious country, and much of the work related to education occurs in the context of the religion, including Ombogo, which is a Seventh Day Adventist school. The vast majority of Kenyans are Christians, with some Hindi and Muslim believers, particularly in the larger cities or up along the Sudan and Somali borders and the study of the Christian faith is part of the required curriculum in the schools; to gain the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education, students take a state exam in five of the following subjects: English, Kiswahili, Mathematics, Science, Agriculture, Geography, History and Christian Religious Education. At the end of secondary school they are examined in seven subjects, with English, Kiswahili and Mathematics compulsory.
Am glad to read this cause i studied my high school at Ombogo Girls,and i completed school in 2006. Its true that the quality of education is high,thanks to the dedication of the teachers who where available by then. I remember my lot we managed to appear on the news paper as best performing girls school. Am glad cause the grade i got has helped me. My names are Cynthia Oyier former student of Ombogo Girls.
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