More on Kenya: Read more information on KENYA from the CIA World Factbook Meet our Kenya scholars Read about our efforts to combat female genital mutilation (FGM) in Tharaka Watch local Tharaka performing group Folk Media perform a dance in honor of women's rights and girls' education

In 2007, Women's Global expanded to the Meru/Tharaka region of Kenya near Mount Kenya, a very isolated rural area with no electricity or running water.

Tharaka is one of the most marginalized regions of Kenya because of its remote location, erratic weather conditions and drought, and poor infrastructure and roads. Seventy percent of the population attempt to make a sustainable living as farmers, but are unable to do so because market prices for agricultural products in the region are very low.

Although tuition for primary school in Kenya is free, many families still lack resources for uniforms and school supplies, and, in many cases any available funds will go toward the boys’ education before the girls'. Of those girls who do finish primary school, few are able to go on to secondary school because most families cannot afford the high cost of secondary schools, which in Kenya are usually single-sex boarding schools with expensive tuition rates.

Women's Global provides elementary and secondary school scholarships through our Sisters to School Program to girls in the Tharaka region, covering uniforms, school, personal and health supplies, and tuition for secondary school. Additionally, we provide:

• Literacy classes for adult women to help them support their daughters in school
• Health education to prevent health-related school absences
• "Molding" Clubs for both girls and boys to influence the next generation for children's rights, healthy relationship building, women's rights, and the importance of educating girls
• Community awareness events to spread the word about the importance of educating girls and supporting girls in school
• "Circumcision with Words" alternative rite of passage that offers girls village-based empowerment training as an alternative way to formally enter adulthood instead of undergoing FGM.
  

We work closely with our partner organization Ntanira Na Mugambo Tharaka Women’s Welfare Project (TWWP), a local community organization dedicated to improving the living status and condition of women in girls in their region, to implement these programs throughout Tharaka.

P.O. Box 617613 ▪ Chicago, Illinois, 60661-7613 USA
Telephone: 708.415.7410 ▪ Email: info@womensglobal.org