Samburu Girls foundation win technovation global impact award

Girls from the Samburu Girls Foundation have won the 2022 Technovation Global Impact Award.

The virtual competition had different countries identify a problem within their community and develop innovations to address the challenges.

Two Kenyan teams from Samburu participated in the beginner and junior categories.

Team Nkishon, from the beginner category, had five girls aged 8-12, who came up with E-go School app.

Lack of proper education in Samburu is a challenge and illiteracy levels are as high as 78 per cent.

Samburu Girls Foundation project coordinator Mercy Wanderi said that lack of money and high poverty levels have left many girls and boys uneducated.

“In Samburu, going to school is abnormal, missing school is normal,” Wanderi told the Star.

The software innovation was centred on consolidating all available scholarship opportunities within the country in one app.

This was aimed at providing children with different options that they could apply for, to get funds for their education.

“Banks, government agencies, and private organisations offer scholarships to children in low-income areas but the information never reaches Samburu,” Wanderi said.

Residents rarely own gadgets hence getting such information is a challenge.

Team Nkishon emerged as the finalist at the African regional level during the competition.

For the junior category, team Almasi had four girls aged 13-16 who also developed End Cut app.

Wanderi said that the software innovation was aimed at ending FGM in their community.

To the girls, being married off brings wealth to their families. 

“The girls wanted to offer their parents alternative sources of income using the app instead of opting to marry off their daughters to old men,” Wanderi said.

Through the app, the girls established a website that would enable the larger community to sell beadwork.

The goal is to start integrating organised groups of women within their community and advertise their work through the app to earn them money.

The app will also feature success stories of FGM survivors like Dr Josephine Kulea, videos and articles centred on sensitising people about the dangers of FGM.

Felister Nashipae, 13, is a member of team Almasi.

At the age of nine, she underwent FGM and was beaded off by her parents.

Beaded off means a moran marks you by gifting you a beaded ornament in exchange for sexual favours. 

The girl is not supposed to get pregnant after being beaded.

“I was rescued and brought to the Samburu Girls Centre. My parents did not want me to come here but I wanted to,” she told the Star.

Despite experiencing problems such as poor internet connection, Nashipae is happy that their team won.

Team Almasi won the Global Social Impact Award, bagging Sh250,000.

Nashipae said that preparing for the competition was a challenge because none of them had ever interacted with a computer.

“Today, I am computer literate. I can even operate a mobile phone. I can send emails and create word documents,” Nashipae said.

“From the competition, my friends and I are able to develop long-term solutions for the problems that our community faces.”

Nashipae’s dream is to become a doctor.

“I want to tell my friends and other young girls in my community that they can do anything to achieve their dreams,” she said.

The girls received mentorship from Safaricom, Global Shapers and E-mentoring Africa.

The latter donated computers that aided in their interaction with technology for the first time.

“The girls had never seen a computer so for us to reach a point where we developed these apps, we had to start with computer basics. This is a keyboard, this is a mouse,” Wanderi said.

“The girls had to have night lessons to catch up in terms of technical know-how.”

E-mentoring Africa registered the teams for the competition and the girls went through a whole technology curriculum before they could embark on building their software.

“They were trained for 12 weeks in web and app development and even coding so that they could come up with their inventions,” Wanderi said.

In August, they virtually pitched their innovation ideas alongside teams from countries all over the world as they were being judged.

“We faced the challenge of bringing the girls together during their first pitching. We were tasked to find a hotel for all of them so that they could attend the World Summit together while in Samburu,” Wanderi said.

She said that this was a new experience for them and did not imagine that they would win.

“Beating countries like India and USA was a very exciting experience,” Wanderi said.

Samburu Girls Foundation is an NGO that was registered in 2011.

It is a child projection organisation that seeks to address the issues of FGM, beading, and child marriage.

They have established a rescue centre for girls at Loosuk, Samburu West subcounty.

They operate in some parts of Baringo, Isiolo, Laikipia, Marsabit, Pokot, Samburu and Turkana.

Wanderi said that they work in partnership with well-wishers to rescue girls and also have walk-in girls who present their cases to be assisted.

“Last year, we managed to rescue a nine-year-old girl who was married off to a 70-year-old man who would physically abuse her,” she said.

The rescued girls undergo psychosocial support to help them adapt to their new surroundings and possibly recover.

They also go through a combined accelerator ECD programme, where they are taught the basics of literacy, numeracy and etiquette.

“They are taught how to brush their teeth, dress, shower, use toilet paper, and even flush the toilet,” Wanderi said.

“Some of the girls don’t know how to do such things therefore, we never assume that they know.”

The combined ECD accelerator programme runs for one year after which the girls join formal schooling depending on the level of their education

The girls then go through a reintegration programme so that they can be reunited with their families.

“We notify the chief and child protection services so that they are aware we are reuniting the girls with their families,” Wanderi said.

The foundation has however received backlash from the community.

Wanderi said residents uphold their culture and don’t see the need to appreciate and educate children.

“We are always told that we are the organisation that deprives men of their wives, and break marriages. We have also seen cases where a moran comes to the centre ready to fight because he wants the girl he beaded,” she said.

Wanderi also said that they are sometimes forced to engage security forces to help them in cases where morans walk in ready to forcefully take away girls.

The organisation has rescued over 1500 girls and resulted to use education as its empowerment tool.

“We usually support them to the highest level of education they can get to and try to source jobs for them,” Wanderi said.

“We have 58 girls at the centre who attend day school and 495 in boarding schools.”

The organisation is currently supporting 56 boys who are in school.

Wanderi said that boys also undergo dangerous cultural practices such as radical moranism.

This is a harmful cultural practice where once a boy undergoes circumcision and becomes a warrior, he is forbidden to eat from his mother’s house, and he is prohibited from talking, sitting, and laughing with women.

“This deprives them of education because they cannot be in a space where there are ladies and girls, properly balanced diet and proper childhood development,” Wanderi said.

“They are usually celebrated if they raid a community, rape or even kill someone.”

Wanderi said that they would love to have more partners come on board to help them in terms of funding, capacity building, STEM training, and offer support through the provision of social amenities such as food.

“We have an ICT resource centre within the organisation that we are using to empower the whole community to a point where we don’t have to be rescuing girls anymore,” she said.

To fully make the centre operational, the foundation hopes to receive more than 30 computers, set up WiFi connectivity, receive printers and gain staff members.

Lack of political goodwill, illiteracy, continued cultural practices, and lack of family planning, are some of the challenges the organisation continues to face.

The foundation looks forward to supporting community-based organisations and empowering them through education.

Edited by Kiilu Damaris