Helping Educate Children In Kenya
As well as campaigning for Breast Cancer Awareness in Kenya, Mama Melissa Foundation is proud to support the people of Embu, Kenya, with a variety of projects to help further develop the local community.
Our Projects
Many of our projects are involved with education, as we believe that every child matters and that young people have a right to live life free of poverty, abuse and exploitation.
For example, Mama Melissa Foundation would like to thank you all for your donations towards building a classroom for disabled children at AIC Beram Gachuriri primary school Embu, Kenya.
We are pleased to say that we have already raised £4,000 which means the classroom has now been completed, but we still need more funds to add further facilities for the children. To do this we need to raise an additional £2,000, so we would appreciate any donations.
Why We Help
For a young person to thrive, they need an holistic education encompassing both physical and mental health, and good livelihoods.
At Mama Melissa Foundation, we provide these services to a specific group of vulnerable young people in Kenya.
We support gifted, disadvantaged and vulnerable girls in Mbeere South by paying school fees, which enables them to have access to secondary education.
We also empower young scholars to finish school, leverage their education into viable opportunities for earned income and have the tools to self-advocate for their own life choices.
We believe, “if you educate a girl, you educate a family, and also the wider community."
Our Vision
Women and girls are progressing steadily in the Kenyan education systems, but they still encounter challenges.
While the Kenyan government has created policies that offer equal opportunities to all, this policy has not been converted into action. Gender inequality still exists which is not limited to higher education.
Limited opportunties for girls
For example, girls are more likely to drop out of school than boys, due to factors such as poverty, insecure learning environments, the high cost of education, and needing to travel long distances to education institutions.
These factors affect boys too, but they give rise to additional risks in the case of girls, such as early pregnancies and sexual abuse. Other challenges include the burden of household chores and family responsibilities assigned to girls.
As a result, fewer girls than boys are enrolled in primary and secondary schools, and fewer are eligible for higher education, and this limits their access to future job opportunities.
Our vision is that girls in rural Kenya will have equal access to secondary school education, and that young scholars will be empowered to finish school, leverage their education into viable opportunities for earned income, and have the tools to make their own life choices.
In short, the charity is dedicated to educate talented and disadvantaged young women so they are equipped with the knowledge, resources and self-confidence they need to make health and informed decisions about their future.
Girls Need More Help
We have a particular focus on educating girls because in Kenya, from time immemorial, girls have received less education than boys.
This is because girls were traditionally married-off at an early age in return for a dowry which helped to support the family.
There is a high percentage of girls, especially in the rural areas of Kenya, dropping out of school because of poverty, because it is easier for girls to get jobs such as housemaids in order to provide for their families.
However, not every girl is lucky enough to get a job. Unfortunately, some end up on the streets.
Our Gallery
How you can help
In Kenya, 50% more women than men are living in poverty in rural areas and 50% of female-led households are below the poverty line.
Enabling girls to stay in school and giving them the education that every child deserves is the first step towards bridging the gender divide in Africa.
Put simply, Kenyan girls face far more issues than boys with regard to completing their education, and that's why we founded the Mama Melissa Foundation.