An assembly hall at a girl’s boarding school in Kenya, Africa is packed with students.
The high school-age girls are standing, proudly dressed in a uniform that includes a gray skirt, and a blue sweater vest over a white collared shirt, topped off with a full-length tie.
They’re singing and clapping to welcome a group of eight people from Lexington sitting on a stage facing the girls. Smiles and joy radiate from the Lexington visitors.
Dr. Tad Hughes says he wasn’t prepared for the amazing reception. “We felt like we were rock stars. But we had to say, no, we're not. We are just humans trying to do some good things. It was amazing. I never really felt that, that amount of joy that was directed towards me.”
Dr. Hughes and the Lexington group are in Kenya with Kelly Brewer who is leading a grassroots effort to help impoverished girls afford an education. It’s called Kenya Girls Forward or K-G-F, started by her mother, Jo Robertson, and a friend, Carolyn Witt Jones, in 2011.
Brewer says, “In Kenya, the government only pays for school through eighth grade, and it's a very patriarchal society, and if the families have the financial means, they will prioritize their boys.”
Brewer says 85 percent of the girls in Kenya live in poverty.
She says the girls are vulnerable to abuse and getting pregnant at a very early age. “Then they're down a path of lots of babies and very little opportunity, and I think there's, you know, a lot of abuse.”
Martha Maina works for Rural Women Peace Link in Kenya, advocating for and empowering girls. “We have regions that are high in violence, prone to violence. We have regions that FGM, the female genital modulation, is still being practiced. We have areas that alcohol is still an issue. So, you find these girls, when they drop out of school, they are at the risk of getting pregnant at a very early age and responsibility is now starting piling up, and the level of poverty continues, or the poverty chain continues. It's a challenge for many of these young girls.”
Rural Women Peace Link helps select girls in Kenya for sponsorship through K-G-F.
Selline Korir of Kenya says the girls waiting for sponsorship are very anxious and stressed. “Many of the girls that we encountered and selected, we found them when they were very timid. They were very emotionally hurting. They were because they couldn't tell exactly how they are, where their school fee will come from. They were very much removed.”
Brewer says money goes a long way in helping girls in Kenya. For $500 a sponsored student receives a year of boarding school.
She says, “It's unbelievable how far the money can go. We're trying to put together different levels of giving. So like, what $25 would buy them, what $50 would get them, what $100, what 250 you know, and then if you make the commitment to sponsor a girl through her high school, then you get the communication with them. You get their letters, and you get their updates on their progress reports and their grades and their test scores and that sort of thing. That's huge.”
To date, K-G-F has sponsored 306 girls, and Brewer wants it to continue growing.
Her mother passed away a couple of years ago from breast cancer.
Brewer had been donating to the cause for years, but she says a trip to Kenya with her husband Rob really inspired her to keep her mother’s mission alive.
“Our first day, we spent the day with the Kenya Girls Forward alumni. And you hear their stories and their determination and their courage and their fight just to go to school. I think for me too, it was just the impact that $50 can make over there. You can buy school uniforms; you can buy toiletries for these girls. You can buy books.”
Dr. Hughes says the visit to Kenya to meet the girls was eye-opening. “One of the things we got to see was the people that had graduated, like the girls, the women that had graduated. They were now doing great things in their community, buying, able to buy a home for their families. These were kids that were running away because they didn't have a good life, and so they were able to go to school. And that part, kind of makes you feel special.”
One of the first girls the Brewers sponsored is now a graduate student at the University of Notre Dame.
31-year-old Mercy Jerop says K-G-F changed her life. “You develop a sense of community, like you feel like I'm in a space where people understand what I'm going through. We can figure out solutions together to these challenges that we are facing, gives you hope, and sometimes, like, sharing your story inspires someone else. So, it's not just about, like finances. Just go to school we paid for you. It's like you get someone to accompany you through the journey that helps you grow in so many different ways. Like, professionally, you get to learn about your careers and what you interested in.”
For Brewer seeing how far Mercy has moved forward personally and professionally is tremendously rewarding. “She has overcome things that you and I can't even imagine. She's remarkable, and she's got a precious family. I got to meet her mom and two of her sisters, her son and her nephew. It's given more to me than I feel like I've given to it.”
More about Kenya Girls Forward is at https://bgcf.givingfuel.com/kenya-girls-foward-charitable-fund.
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