More than 26 girls who dropped out of school due to early pregnancies in Meibeki location of Uasin Gishu County will get a second chance to proceed with their education. According to World Vision Kenya Meibeki area development project manager, Allan Malilo, school enrolment for girls in 2004 when the project was started, was very low due to early pregnancies. “We managed to talk with the parents of the affected girls and we were able to enrol six of them back to school and they were able to go through secondary school and proceeded to tertiary colleges after their KCSE,” said Malilo adding that one of the girls was able to join the University of Eldoret to pursue a degree in Information Science. Currently, 20 girls have also got another chance to continue with their education after giving birth and are in different schools. Africa World Vision Finland, which is supporting the ADP, manager Ula Tervo said 10 percent of school girls in Meibeki used to drop out of school due to early pregnancies. “This was occasioned by the long distances they used to walk to and from school and were easily waylaid along the way,” noted Tervo. In an effort to address the challenge, Tervo said World Vision Finland supported an initiative to put up boarding facilities to enable the girls study at a conducive and safe environment. She expressed joy at the increasing number of girls proceeding to secondary schools and Tertiary colleges. To empower the young mothers even more, World Vision Kenya in collaboration with other development partners are in the process of completing a Sh 5.7 million safe home where lactating young mothers could pursue their courses while taking care of their babies. The complex safe house constructed at Sesia will ensure that the mothers are not separated from their babies as they learn. One of the donors supporting the project Prof. Sirrku from World Vision Kenya said the organisation will provide Sh 1.36 million towards the project, World Vision Kenya Sh 1.6million, Moiben CDF Sh 800,000 while Uasin Gishu county government will give Sh 3.3 million.

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