Want to make a real difference this holiday season? Seed of Hope, a Kenya based humanitarian group has a really amazing grass-roots project that is greatly effecting the lives of hundreds. What’s the challenge? As much as 80% of teenage girls in Kenya never have the opportunity to attend secondary school. Because of this lack of education, their life options growing up are severely limited and they often find themselves pressured into high-risk ways of survival, from child marriage to prostitution. Their lives all too frequently include great human abuses, extreme poverty and hunger. This problem not only effects their lives, but the community fabric as a whole.
That’s where Seed of Hope is coming to the rescue. This straight forward organization is educating girls, giving them the knowledge they need to strike out on their own, helping themselves while also providing support for their families and community. Their program puts students through 2 years of training and counseling, including a food program; then following graduation, girls are supported in setting up their own small business. Since 2002, over 480 girls have finished the program and of those graduates, about 82% are earning above minimum wage through employment or their own business venture.
What’s the long term benefit of the project? Besides the girls gaining financial independence, they will also be able to employ others, pay for their siblings education & improve living conditions for their families. Excitingly, these are all realities the program is currently observing.
The donations the program needs are shockingly low: $10 can provide a girl with all her stationary for a year, $500 can set up a functioning small business such as a bakery. The group is looking to raise $30,000 USD, the amount needed to put 300 girls through the 2 year program. That’s only $100 dollars to change a girls life forever. Amazing. See their project page at international charity organization Global Giving to see frequent updates or to donate.
Above: Graduation Day
Below: Graduates at Work in Kibera
Teacher and students
Celebrating the Big Day
Kitui graduates make an entrance
A student tells what Seed of Hope does
Sewing machines that don’t require electricity
Kariti Computer Center
Smiling faces
