A Second Chance at Life: Mentorship Programme Transforming Girls’ Education in Northern Kenya

Female teacher intern Elizabeth Muyere with her mentees in Kurum Secondary School in Naibunga Central Community Conservancy, in Laikipia County.

Like any other young person her age, Elizabeth Muyere was excited about life. She had grand dreams she could not wait to fulfil. Every day she woke up with boundless enthusiasm, ready to take on the world. In a fleeting moment, it all changed. She became pregnant at the age of 18, while in form three.

With the confirmation that she had conceived, Elizabeth’s plans for her future came crashing down like a house of cards. The idea of raising a child in poverty as a single mother with no education was unthinkable. Her parents had undergone great financial strain to put her through school. Having to inform them that she was expectant broke her to pieces. She wished she could turn back the hands of time, and make different decisions, wiser choices.

The news she was carrying a child was met with shock and disappointment. Her father demanded that she drop out of school and marry the father of the child. In her village, Elizabeth became the subject of gossip and the target of jokes and all forms of ridicule. Young girls were cautioned not to follow in her footsteps. At best, she was a disgrace. It all became too much for young Elizabeth who was also getting accustomed to pregnancy and all the changes that were taking place in and around her.

The thought of leaving her homestead to face hostile remarks from villagers terrified her to the point where she was too scared to leave home. Isolated and weighed down by grief and uncertainty, she contemplated an abortion. Elizabeth, then a student at Kurum Secondary School in Naibunga Central Community Conservancy, in Laikipia County, recalls being too embarrassed to attend class, so she dropped out and stayed home. In time, she found solace in her mother, who was understanding and supportive. Eventually, Elizabeth safely delivered a healthy baby girl. Three months after her little one was born, Elizabeth bumped into Brenda Naserian, one of her former secondary school teachers.

Naserian made it her mission to bring Elizabeth back to school as she too had suffered the same fate as Elizabeth and nearly dropped out.

Speaking with Elizabeth, Naserian made a convincing argument that Elizabeth’s mother could look after her grandchild. Understandably hesitant at first, Elizabeth followed Naserian’s advice and eventually resumed her studies. Her self-confidence returned gradually and in 2023, Elizabeth successfully completed secondary school. She hopes to enroll in a vocational training programme and take up a career in the hospitality industry. Many young girls in the pastoralist setting Elizabeth comes from have been denied access to education by a confluence of factors including a patriarchal setup in which decision-making is traditionally vested in men, retrogressive cultural practices such as early marriage and female genital mutilation, and the climate crisis.

Elizabeth would have become yet another statistic, had Naserian, her former teacher, not intervened. To improve girls’ education, NRT, with support from the AKO Foundation through Conservation International, implemented the Girls’ Mentorship Programme, which has recruited, trained, and deployed 23 fully trained female teacher interns in 23 schools across 14 community conservancies, to mentor, increase enrollment and retention, and facilitate a smooth transition of young girls from one educational level to another. Naserian, Elizabeth’s former teacher is one of these teacher interns and has brought back 13 young girls to school, after convincing them that despite the setbacks encountered, they could still pick up the pieces and excel in their education.

Naserian has also mentored over 200 young girls at her school who have now either completed their secondary education, moved on to tertiary institutions, are employed, or have ventured into small-scale business. Since the inception of the Girls’ Mentorship Programme in 2022, over 2,220 girls have been mentored and 15 teen mothers and girls who were married off at a young age have resumed their studies, with increasing enrollment recorded in all 23 schools where the Programme is being implemented.

Female teacher interns during annual teachers training.

The female intern teachers, who serve as role models, collaborate with the 23 schools, the provincial administration, and the Ministry of Education in extremely difficult circumstances to retrieve girls who were married off at a tender age and support their return to the classroom. The Teachers Service Commission also supports the Programme by providing curriculum training and capacity building.

Despite the prevailing challenges, which are compounded by poverty and limited access to resources, the Girls’ Mentorship Programme continues to bridge gender and societal gaps in community conservancies and drive their economic development through education. Plans are underway to recruit more female teachers and expand the Programme.

The mentorship of young girls forms one component of a multipronged approach that NRT—with partners’ support— is taking to foster gender equality and social inclusion across northern and coastal Kenya. This approach has seen the two regions experience positive change over the last decade. The change is attributed to member conservancies’ efforts to empower women and young girls and amplify their voices in conservation, leadership, natural resource management and community development.

Story by Vivian Jebet