Baraka Care Children’s Foundation is striving to restore hope to teens and youths through mentorship, leadership, and empowerment. It has worked with hundreds of young girls and boys from marginalized communities in Kenya. Its integrated approach is one that seeks to see youth get equal opportunities in their different communities through behavior change, education economic development and leadership training. This project will build a community training centre to educate and mentor 500 youngsters from Mathare north ward.

Baraka Care Children’s Foundation is targeting both primary school and High School students (Form 1 to Form 4) of both gender, the Mentorship Program’s purpose is to prepare Pupils joining form one and students for life after high school by discussing with them various topics, geared to demonstrate the real-world experiences which will help them successfully integrate into the community. The mentorship program also identifies various issues that the students are facing and through one on one and group counseling they are addressed.

Through our Mentorship Program in Kenya, we educate girls and boys about taboo topics such as child marriage, child trafficking, puberty and menstruation, domestic violence, including rape and female genital mutilation.

Gender inequality in Africa, particularly in Kenya is a major issue. Girls are denied so many opportunities, including their right to access education. Without education, a girl’s future is limited and she is more easily forced into the issues of child marriage and child trafficking.

Our Girl Child Mentorship sessions focus on improving girls and young women’s empowerment and education. So far thousands of girls have been reached through our Mentorship teachings. Girls are educated about such topics as child marriage, child trafficking, puberty and menstruation, domestic violence, rape and female genital mutilation.

For many young girls in Kenya, they have no one to speak with about such topics so these mentorship days alongside counseling sessions are a safe space to learn, ask questions and learn to be proud that they are female. Our Founder is extremely passionate about Girl Child Mentorship as they are the most vulnerable and exploited demographic in Kenya due to lack of education and rights.

Challenge

Today, more than 80% of young girls and boys in Mathare north ward, Nairobi Kenya, are not able to get quality education. The reason behind this is that their parents or guardians do not have stable jobs. It is estimated that most families in Mathare slum live under one dollar a day. Because of this fact, most students drop out of school and turn to other negative ways to cater for their needs and those of their families. Some of the challenges they face are drug abuse and early pregnancy

Solution

We believe that the only way to solve this problem is through mentorship. We seek to reintegrate boys and girls who have dropped out of the educational system back to school. The project will also provide leadership and entrepreneurship training to those who wish to start businesses that will insure sustainable solutions for themselves and their families.