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Organization	Makindu Children's Program
Region	Kenya
Website	Website
Facebook	Facebook
Twitter	@Twitter
ProjectLeader	Diana Richardson

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Makindu seeks to empower poor destitute girls in Kenya to complete full secondary education and obtain skills for an independent, healthy life. Girls in Kenya often drop out after primary school (8 years) when tuition is no longer covered. Girls receive socio-cultural pressure to abandon education in favor of early marriage, family caregiving, and home chores. This project pays tuition for girls to attend and complete secondary school, launching them towards higher studies or vocational careers.

Challenge

The cost of school fees, lack of family support, socio-economic pressure to perform unpaid work at home and unplanned pregnancies create challenging barriers to girls who have finished primary/elementary school in Kenya. If they have not dropped out of school already, more than 70% will not continue their education past their 8th year of enrollment. Without secondary or vocational education, girls are much less likely to gain financial independence or personal empowerment, and suffer in poverty.

Long-Term Impact

It is estimated that the return on one year of secondary education for a girl correlates with as much as a 25% increase in wages. Ensuring all girls receive secondary or vocational schooling in Kenya could reduce child marriages and unwanted pregnancies by more than half. Educated girls help break the cycle of poverty, are more likely to enter the work force, earn higher incomes, delay marriage, plan their families, seek an education for their own children and give back to their communities.