Claire's World
Global Service
Kenya Service
The Women’s Institute for Secondary Education and Research (WISER) empowers girls and communities through transformative education and wholistic health. It’s community-engaged, girl-centered interventions help girls transcend poverty, HIV risk, and gender-based violence.The WISER Girls Secondary School has partnerships with other NGOs to take in high potential girls from impoverished areas in the Maasai area and in northern Kenya. They also enroll girls from the Okiek tribe, a protected indigenous community in Kenya.
In Feb. 2024, We were warmly welcomed at WISER with dancing, singing and presentations. We went on the stage, trying to keep up with the girls’ dancings and singings, and we engaged in different classes with the girls，such as Math, Computer Science, Statistics and Swahili.
The next day, we strapped on a helmet, jumped on a motorcycle and went in groups to visit the homes of some of the local WISERS girls. This was the most “eye-opening” and thought-provoking experience we had ever had. We learned that some lived without electricity while others lived in the families which 6 or more persons lived in a single room.
On the third day morning, we visited local primary schools. We were all shocked at the conditions in the schools. Typically, the schools had classes of over fifty students, wooden benches and no electricity.
On the fourth day, we meet with local officials to talk about the economy and education in Muhuru Bay, which was a bit controversial compared with what we had heard from the locals.
During the conference with the local officials, it was extremely ironic as they stated that it was obligatory and enforced for both girls and boys to obtained the same rights to have an education. However, it greatly contradicted with what I had heard from the girls as they told me that it was a norm for girls in Kenya to be married in a young age or had to leave the school to decrease the expenses and assist the family. Many of them had to cook and do house chores for a big family with fifteen or sixteen family members.