Kenya: Tackle Education Barriers to Empower Girlchild, Govt Urged

Nairobi — Access to education for the girlchild has been termed as an easier way to achieve gender equality while transforming individuals and communities.

Stakeholders pushing for women empowerment have particularly said that women in leadership have a fundamental role to help achieve this noble agenda.

According to Victoria Shappard, a Co-Founder of the Canada Mathare Education Trust (CMETrust), a just society can only be realized if women are involved in leadership.

She says that many challenges faced by countries around the world are as a result of disregarding women leadership abilities.

“We should inspire women and girls to be more confident and break barriers to education by increasing academic opportunities, basic life skills training and education support for marginalized young women especially those in low-income areas,” she noted.

The community-based organization has been bridging the education gaps for girls in Mathare Slum, with over 200 girls benefitting with secondary school scholarships since 2006.

Esther Njenga, a Programs Manager at CMETrust noted that the organization is powered by the desire to challenge the state of gender inequalities in the society which is cited as the main obstacle for girls accessing education opportunities.

“We are on a mission to inspire scholars to pursue leadership roles and engage in male-dominated spaces whilst challenging inequalities within their communities and households and gain practical skills for daily life,” she said during a forum dubbed Women in Leadership organized by CMETrust.

These efforts are aimed at contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for gender equality, education and partnerships, as well as lining up to Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy’s (FIAP) which calls for action to eradicate poverty around the world and promote gender equality and empowerment of girls and women.

According to National Gender and Equality Commission (NGEC), women constitute half of the population and are indispensable contributors to economic, social and political development.

However, women encounter multifaceted barriers hindering their full participation.

These Challenges ranging from deep-seated cultural norms, discriminatory practices, and limited resource access, perpetuate gender disparities.

A World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2023, indicates that Kenya ranks 77 out of 153 countries in terms of gender equality.

The report shows that women still lag on many fronts including economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.

Further, Gender-based violence (GBV) continues to hinder women and girls from operating optimally in different fields.

“Women and girls especially those from slum areas are disadvantaged in many fronts. There are few schools and resources available to them. Girls in these set-ups lack relatable role models. We want to link them to opportunities,” observes Njenga.

Speaking during the same forum, Nominated Senator Crystal Asige noted that young women with disability carry multiple burden of discrimination.

“Studies show that this special group is four times likely to suffer GBV, three times prone to lack of healthcare services, three times likely to be illiterate, two times more likely to be unemployed and two times less likely to access internet,” she reveals.

She says that women are disproportionately uneducated, unemployed, exploited and abused and are exposed to more challenges than men.

To this end, she challenges women to make informed decisions that will not betray their future.

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To tackle the issue of Gender Based Violence which largely affects women, Ms Shappard has called on government to invest in girls at an early age so that they can build enough capacity to avoid risky situations.

She says that the mental disturbance emanating from GBV creates more social and societal misery.

Her call comes even as a 16 -day campaign against GBV is ongoing with stakeholders calling for establishment of proper legislative frameworks that will help to hold perpetrators of gender-based violence and femicide to account.

According to a 2022 report from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), over 40% of women between the ages of 15 and 49 have experienced some form of physical violence, while 14% have been subjected to sexual violence.

These numbers, however, are likely underreported due to the stigma and fear surrounding GBV.

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