Category Archive

Inclusive Education

Girl Child

International day of the girl child

Thematic Area: Plate for Plate
International Day of the girl child. 11th October 2021

Today being the day that we celebrate International day of the girl child, we are honored to have Peris Mootian who is a Program coordinator with Girl Child Network to help us understand why we celebrate this day and elaborate more on its importance.

We celebrate the day of the girl child to highlight some of the challenges girls still face around the world. We also highlight some of the empowerment issues that girls made and we also want to tell the world that girls rights are also human rights too.

The issues of girls started off during World Conference day for women in Beijing in 1995 when the discussions around women which also touched on the rights of girls and the declaration by the women then was to give girls a spotlight especially article 12 which specifically talked about girls and it gave a forum for the world leaders including the grassroots leaders to be able to tackle the issues that were keeping girls from progressing just as the boy child. There were so many barriers that were identified by them that were violating the rights of girls which needed to be addressed for the girls to be empowered and be at par with the boy child. 

According to Peris, through research in our own households, We've realized that empowering girls has ripple effect for example if you educate the girl, it means you're breaking the cycle of poverty. You're breaking the barriers that keeps girls out of school, you're breaking the barriers that keep girls from accessing health including their productive health and rights. It also means an educated girl will make sure her children will go to school and have a healthy family. She'll also be able to plan the number of children that she wants and nobody will be able to force her to have like initially women who were having more than 10 children. They will have girls who can decide to have one or two or even decide not to have none especially if they're empowered it gives girls a range of decisions to make it through and a range of opportunities to access and improve their lives. And it is such that they will also contribute to the GDP of the country. 

Girls continue to face a lot of challenges, some that have been there for decades. We are still talking of girls getting married at an early age, female genital mutilation, girls getting pregnant at an early age although the government has put in place policies and laws to support the girls like the reentry policy that allows girls to go back to school when they give birth and also the prohibition of the FGM Act that criminalizes FGM but we continue to see these cases and it’s because of strong cultural norms, values and dissemination of information.

If we look at effect of COVID-19, it increased the gender based violence the girls are facing. There were reports that more than 40% of the girls fell pregnant and some of the things that are exposing girls in to teenage pregnancies are when the households are not able to provide basic needs for them like sanitary pads which forces them to access from men. Families are struggling to provide the basic needs for their girls.

Girls are still having challenges accessing education reasons being FGM and early marriage which leads to gender based issues and the circle of poverty will keep on continuing. Poverty also plays a major role in preventing girls to continue with their education putting in mind the cost of living keeps on increasing each day.

Peris noted that some of the statics that has been recorded so far in terms of empowering girls is increased education attainment which accounts for about 50% of the economic growth in the developing countries over the past 50 years. For majority of women, we have seen significant gain in education that has not translated in the better labour market outcome.

In terms of ensuring quality education in girls, this can be ensured by looking at the challenges and barriers that are keeping girls out of school and responding to them. We also need to sensitize the communities to ensure that we don’t continue with FGM because it has its negative effect on the child in terms of health, education and even on her learning outcome. 

We need to support the girl child on the minimum basic needs especially the gender related needs like the sanitary pads in order to ensure continuous supply of sanitary pads for the girls. We should also increase scholarships and support of school fees for the girls especially for the struggling communities. 

Children living with disabilities should also be supported through inclusive education (I.E) because most of them require assistive devices or require an adaptive learning environment. So there is need to improve schools to accommodate children with disabilities. We should also provide gender responsive sanitation facilities for the girls by having schools that have latrines with changing rooms for the girls especially during their monthly menstrual cycle to bridge the days and times lost by the girls. We should also provide safe spaces for the girls to be able to be supported and schools to remain safe spaces for the girls where they can run to and open up on issues related with gender based violence

As we celebrate this day, Peris reiterated that we all know girls too have a voice but we need to see them given that forum to exercise their voice and sit in the table to make decisions especially on matters affecting them will have a positive impact as they grow up.

It will empower them to speak for themselves and also create a safe platform for everyone especially when it comes to politics.

Covid has affected the girl child because it spiked or increased the already existing challenges that they already had. There was a rise on FGM, reemergence of child marriages and increase in teenage pregnancies compared to the pre-COVID years. Drop in the number of the enrollment of the girl child where drought also escalated the challenges girls face in the community. 

There are programs both at the government level and at civil society level. At the government level, we have policies in place for example the reentry policy of 1994 which has its own guideline developed in 2018 which mandates parents to make sure girls after giving birth go back to school. We also have the support from the government paying for the capitation where the students get support inform of stationaries. It also ensures all children who finish primary school transit to secondary school but it has been a challenge.

Most of the girls who are funded through scholarships, CDF, or by the county government basically attend only form 1 and it’s because not most of them get continued support so at the end of the day the learning outcome is not completed.

We want every girl child to go to school and attain education that will enable her to be in the labor market. We want girls to learn IT, empowered and sit in the decision making table but how we want to do it differently is the interventions that are undertaken sometimes needs strong follow up and sustainability. 

The consistency of the interventions that we do is not being reactive when responding to some of the challenges our communities go through. Interventions that are sustainable and actually will support communities and families to be able to send their children to schools.

Peris noted that we have to support girls especially adolescent girls to ensure that they grow up and be empowered women of tomorrow and the world will be a better place for all humanity.

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Kereria Primary School

Head teacher of Kereria Primary school narrates how the school feeding programme has enabled the school going children to stay at school and improve performance.
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Mental health

Mental Health Issues

Thematic Area: Mainstreaming Cross-cutting Issues
Global Mental Health Day. 10th October 2021
Close up of model brain on mental health headlines

Today being the day that we celebrate world mental health day, we are honored to have Joseph Otieno who is a counselling psychologist with Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) to help us understand why we celebrate this day and elaborate more on its
importance.

World mental health day celebration is an annual event and it takes place every year on the 10th of October. Its main objective is to create awareness and advocate against social stigma associated with mental health issues and also to raise awareness of mental health issues across
the globe and mobilize efforts in support of mental health. According to Joseph, some of the common mental health challenges that people face include depression, anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder, Bipolar and schizophrenia.

Some of the main reasons as to why mental health still continues to be a big issue in our society is because culture has not embraced mental health or ill health but instead views it as a misfortune or a curse. Cultural perception and attitude around mental health, cultural beliefs
and religion too plays a big role. Before we go far, lets differentiate between mental health and mental illness. According to Joseph, a psychologist with KNCHR defines mental health as a person’s emotional and psychological well-being.

How someone feels about himself or herself and subsequently interact
with others while mental illness is a disorder which affects an individual’s moods, thoughts and behavior. People with mental illness do experience distress and may not appropriately function at work, social situation or even at home due to distress experiences they are in.
One of the ways we can became part of this conversation in order to help the society is by being sensitive to children during developmental stages in life and also by way of understanding. There are several factors that influence mental health including life events or even one’s genetics.

For one to be able to tell whether a person has mental illness is through his or her actions and thoughts. If one withdraws from friends and activities, significant mood changes of highs and lows. Some of the mental illnesses that we should be aware of include;

● Mood swings/ mood disorder
● Anxiety disorder
● Psychotic disorder – this include hallucinations
● Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) – It is linked to traumatic events

To identify a person who could be experiencing mental illness, one must be sensitive to unusual behavior exhibited by that particular individual. One should also be observant to behavioral changes such as inability to cope with daily problems or stress, problems with alcohol or drug use, significant mood changes of highs and lows or when one is having trouble understanding or to relate to situations and to people.

Mental health has a big effect on families because when mental health illness enters a family, such family gets devastated and such illness often becomes the family’s primary focus. The illness also comes with emotional cost that can be high and deeply affecting family members at
the same time. It leads to feeling of helplessness, frustration, loss, guilt and compassion fatigue. We can demystify and remove negative approach towards persons with mental health by dealing with the misconceptions and myths around mental health that;

● Mental illness makes people violent
● People with mental illness cannot function in society
● All people with mental illnesses are crazy
● That you can’t get better if you have mental illness.

This can also be achieved if we de-stigmatize mental health in our society. Some of the ways to improve or maintain our mental health is through regular exercise because physical and mental health are connected hence maintaining physical fitness is key. You can also
find a balance between positive and negative emotions this is by learning to hold on to positive and take break from negative emotions/energy. You can also maintain a healthy social connection not forgetting developing copying skills. This is by coming up with methods used to deal with stressful situations. As a result of COVID-19, many people lost their jobs which affected so many relationships. This led to stress, anxiety, violence and gender based violence. Men are/were unable to cope with pressure of not being able to provide for their families which brought conflict, stress and stigmatization within the families.

Joseph emphasized that people need to look at mental health not from a distance but at a close range to be able to understand people who are undergoing through various mental health issues. As a society we need to understand that mental health is not a death sentence and one
can still function well in the society. 

As we celebrate mental health day, it’s an opportunity for everyone to reach out to people who are undergoing mental health issues, talk to them and make it a habit to create conversations on mental health because even stress is a mental health issue.

Other Mainstream issues - Project Blog

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Kereria Primary School

Head teacher of Kereria Primary school narrates how the school feeding programme has enabled the school going children to stay at school and improve performance.
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Kereria Primary School

Head teacher of Kereria Primary school narrates how the school feeding programme has enabled the school going children to stay at school and improve performance.

Distribution of Innerwears & Sanitary Towels

Distribution of Innerwears & Sanitary Towels

Thematic Areas: Mainstreaming Cross-cutting Issues
Funded by: Linas Matkasse
Project Location: Tharaka Nithi County
Project Timeline : Start Date 2019
Project Status: Completed
Project Lead: Jonah Cherutich

Reached out to targeted school going girls

Project Blog

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Kereria Primary School

Head teacher of Kereria Primary school narrates how the school feeding programme has enabled the school going children to stay at school and improve performance.
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Sanitary_pads_distribution

Sanitary Pads Distribution

Thematic Area: Mainstreaming Cross-cutting Issues
Funded by: Lass (Individual DOnor)
Project Location: Tharaka Nithi County
Project Status: Completed
Project Lead: Jonah Cherutich

Distribution of sanitary pads to school going children, to ensure none of them stays away from school

Project Blog

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Kereria Primary School

Head teacher of Kereria Primary school narrates how the school feeding programme has enabled the school going children to stay at school and improve performance.
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Sanitary Pads Distribution

Sanitary Pads Distribution

Thematic Area: Mainstreaming Cross-cutting Issues
Funded by: Linas Matkasse
Project Location: Tharaka Nithi County
Project Status: Completed
Project Lead: Jonah Cherutich

We reached out to 1500 girls 

Mainstream FP1

Mainstream issues - Project Blog

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Kereria Primary School

Head teacher of Kereria Primary school narrates how the school feeding programme has enabled the school going children to stay at school and improve performance.
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Teachers Training on Assessment of CFBL

Teachers Training on Assessment of CFBL

Thematic Area: Inclusive Education
Funded by: Linas Matkasse & CISU (Civil Society In Development)
Project location: Tana River County
Project Status: Ongoing
Project Lead: Jonah Cherutich

The Inclusive Education aims to create awareness to the public on education for all children including those facing barriers to learning as a basic human right. A special focus is for parents/caregivers of the children as Moral Duty Bearers for them to understand their obligations; take their children to school and support them complete schooling successfully. The program also aims to train teachers to enable them to handle CFBL.

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Plate For Plate

Plate For Plate (P4P)

Thematic Area: Humanitarian Intervention
Funded by: Linas Matkasse
Project location: Tharaka Nithi County
Project Status: Ongoing
Project Lead: Jonah Cherutich

Plate For Plate (P4P)

Thematic Area: Humanitarian Intervention
Funded by: Linas Matkasse
Project location: Tharaka Nithi County
Project Status: Ongoing
Project Lead: Jonah Cherutich
NKONDI PRIMARY STUDENTS TAKING LUNCH

The Plate for Plate school feeding program is being implemented in  haraka. It started in 2013, funded by Linas Matkasse through partnership with International Aid Services Kenya (IAS K)

Due to persistent drought in the area, there was need to provide school children with a substantial meal in order to foster education.Maize and beans, being the staple food in the area, seemed ideal.

With this, the Plate for Plate team began implementation in 2015 of the project which currently supports over 10,000 children in 37 schools.

Class Competitions

The project saw the need to create a competition to promote interest in education, by running class competition, this pushed the students to not just study to get food, but to also excel in their academics.

The class competitions run monthly in the 37 schools, a student is awarded based on academic performance, sports, discipline, grooming etc.

Peris Mootian

The Plate for Plate school feeding program is being implemented in  haraka. It started in 2013, funded by Linas Matkasse through partnership with International Aid Services Kenya (IAS K)

Due to persistent drought in the area, there was need to provide school children with a substantial meal in order to foster education.Maize and beans, being the staple food in the area, seemed ideal.

With this, the Plate for Plate team began implementation in 2015 of the project which currently supports over 10,000 children in 37 schools.

Class Competitions

The project saw the need to create a competition to promote interest in education, by running class competition, this pushed the students to not just study to get food, but to also excel in their academics.

The class competitions run monthly in the 37 schools, a student is awarded based on academic performance, sports, discipline, grooming etc.

Inclusive Education Projects Blog

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Kereria Primary School

Head teacher of Kereria Primary school narrates how the school feeding programme has enabled the school going children to stay at school and improve performance.
More

Plate for Plate Feeding Project

Location: Tharaka


The Plate for Plate school feeding program is being implemented in  haraka. It started in 2013, funded by Linas Matkasse through partnership with International Aid Services Kenya (IAS K).


Due to persistent drought in the area, there was need to provide school children with a substantial meal in order to foster education.Maize and beans, being the staple food in the area, seemed ideal.

With this, the Plate for Plate team began implementation in 2015 of the project which currently supports over 10,000 children in 37 schools.


“Laughter is brightest in the place where the food is.”

— Irish Proverb

Class Competitions

The project saw the need to create a competition to promote interest in education, by running class competition, this pushed the students to not just study to get food, but to also excel in their academics.

The class competitions run monthly in the 37 schools, a student is awarded based on academic performance, sports, discipline, grooming etc.

The IAS Kenya’s school feeding program funded by Linas Matkasse has enabled parents enroll and retain their children in school. In addition, it has increased the number of pupils and performance of Kereria Primary School in Tharaka Nithi County, as it is shared by the Headteacher Mr. Julius Chokera. Service to humanity is service to God!

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