HELP SAMBURU GIRLS
Objective: Health and Support for girls’ education 
Subject:
- Repair and renovation of the main dormitory and sanitary facilities
Location: Kenya, Samburu County, Maralal.
Duration: 2020/2023
Local partners: Deputy Governor Samburu County, Dr Joséphine Kulea.
Financial partners: GHA, Engagés Solidaires
Status: COMPLETED
The Samburu Girls Foundation is an NGO founded in 2011 by Joséphine Kulea in order to be able to welcome young girls who have broken up with their families following sexual violence, mutilation or early marriages.
In this part of Kenya very young girls are mostly out of school. In the villages, they are subjected to certain cultural practices, experienced as violence, by their families. They can be excised, offered puberty to young men of the clan or married at a very young age to older men.
Some escape and are rescued by other women or by whistleblowers (police, village chief). They then find refuge in this reception center based 20 km from Maralal, the largest town in the region.
The NGO tries to make the place as secure as possible, while providing often necessary psychological and medical support. They are offered a resumption of their education, as well as the prospect of mediation with the family of origin.
Births take place and young mothers can stay with their babies while the center finds a suitable solution for mother and child.
Some are only about ten years old when they arrive.
Today, the infrastructure is obsolete and is no longer sufficient to accommodate these growing numbers of young girls. They sleep in two-story beds per bed and some on the floor, due to lack of space. The sanitary facilities no longer function properly.
The urgent need is to repair existing structures.
October 2020 Visit of the president of GHA:
We meet the founder and the program assistant who lives on site. Since its opening, 471 young girls have been welcomed here. There is only one dormitory for the 160 or more children who live there permanently. The windows no longer have glass and the sanitary facilities do not work, the iron bunk beds and mattresses are already at the end of their useful life. No running water in the toilets. The children sleep at 2 per bed and the others on the floor. No one complains, the important thing is to be in a safe place with adults who take care of you.
Soon the works will start.
January 2021 the work begins:
It involves renovating the dormitory, changing the broken windows, repainting the walls. It is also necessary to restart a system of access to water for all taps, showers and toilets in the sanitary section adjoining the dormitory. All hardware is delivered and checked, it’s time to get started.
An iron base is made to put the water reserve and ensure sufficient pressure in the pipes. Showers and toilets are replaced and connected.
We must now think about repainting in a color that will appeal to the girls in the center !!! pink !!!
The entrance gate is also repainted to accommodate all the young girls who arrive at the center.
