When the girls graduate from Daraja, we expect some will go on to university while others will go back to their communities to find work or start a business. Going home will reunite them with their families and friends, but also return them to some of the same challenges they faced before starting high school – pressure to marry and start families, unemployment, and family problems.

Fatuma I., Rebecca Lenkupae and Carla

To help the girls make a positive transition back to life at home, Daraja is partnering with community women’s organizations to provide mentorship and opportunities to the girls after graduation.

One such organization is the Samburu East Women’s Empowerment Forum in Wamba. Led by Rebecca Lenkupae, the forum includes 98 individual groups that work to empower women and girls in an area where very few people have a secondary education. In Samburu, it’s estimated that 78% of girls finish primary school and only 3% finish high school, according to the Kenya Integrated Household Budget Survey.

The organization works to improve women’s participation in local politics and community work and to improve their access to land rights. They run income-generating activities – a market and small shop, a cultural village that’s open to tourists, beadwork, farming and selling livestock and poultry – so women can earn their own money and spend it how they like. And they organize woman-to-woman loans to support each other in new ventures.

Carla and Fatuma I., Form 1 students from Wamba, knew Rebecca before they came to Daraja; both girls have family members who work in one of her organization’s projects. When asked if she would ever work for a group like Rebecca’s, Carla lit up with a big smile and said, “Yes, for sure!” She said the collectives offer incredible leadership opportunities for women in her community and if she decides to return to Wamba after graduation, she would definitely get involved.