Mentor HER.
Educate HER.
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Dear Linda,

I hope you are well. To say that I am okay would be an understatement. I am extremely exhilarated, and as I draft this thank you note, I must confess that I am in tears.

I remember with a lot of nostalgia the day the Starehe Girls’ Centre secretary read out my name as part of the new lot of beneficiaries under the Global Give Back Circle; it was quite a moment. That was back in the year 2008. As I look back eight years later, I can confidently say that that particular day set the pace for a future that becomes clearer by the day.

Through the Circle I have become a woman of substance and I bet the wave of change that you once dared to dream of shall see the light of day through us, the Alumni. I became more confident in myself and an affirmative decision maker. I also acquired numerous soft skills including public speaking. The lessons from the workshops we have served to make me a cut above the rest of my peers.

So, today, I did not intend to overemphasize what you know too well, but to start off by telling you that you can now call me Dr. Lavender Otom. I have successfully completed my five-year course and graduated on the 2nd December, 2016. The best part is that I was the Best Female Student in a class of 339 doctors, I also graduated as the best final year student in Pediatrics, Best Final Year Student in Medical Microbiology, and the best final year student in Pathology. The valedictorian medical school class of 2016!

I don’t know how it all happened, but I know the Global Give Back Circle played a big role. During my years in school, I never worried about upkeep, neither about school fees and whenever I needed a book or any other implement all I needed to do was get a quotation for the same.

As I go out to the world I hope that this is just the beginning of a great career. May the Lord Almighty bless you and may many more come to realize their dreams through the Circle. Thank you, thank you, thank you…..

Yours Faithfully,

Lavender

“The Circle is a place where dreams are nurtured and realised,” exclaims 23-year-old Asmahan in her parting shot at the end of the interview. True to her assertion, Asmahan’s star has been getting brighter ever since she joined the Global Give Back Circle (GGBC) as a student at Starehe Girls’ Centre. In December 2014, she graduated from the University of Nairobi with a Bachelor Degree in Anthropology and is now working as a Programming Specialist for Global Give Back Circle – India.

“This is a natural home where people with similar backgrounds meet and feel safe in the company of each other. You get to interact and share experiences with people who help you go through life with confidence,” Asmahan says of GGBC.

Asmahan’s story, however, was one of destitution and hopelessness. It is a story of a girl whose prospects in life would have been dimmed by retrogressive cultural practices like early marriages that ruins chances of girls in her community from achieving their dreams. She grew up in a single parent family in the remote Garissa County in the North Eastern part of Kenya, where drought and lack of basic physical and social infrastructure and traditions consign women to poverty and exclusion.

In a family of seven children, only Asmahan and her two younger brothers were able to go to school as their single mother had no means to educate all her siblings. The responsibility of catering for their basic needs like food and paying school fees was left to their maternal uncle who also had his own family to care for. The light complexioned, jovial girl was, however, lucky enough to perform well in her Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) in which she emerged as the second top girl in the then Garissa District.

“I didn’t know about Starehe Girls, though we had been told that the first girl in the district would be admitted to a prestigious secondary school and have her fees paid. When the application forms came, I was overwhelmed with joy to realise that I would be the one to get admission at the school on a scholarship since the top girl was a local Member of Parliament’s daughter who could pay for her own school fees,” says Asmahan.

At Starehe, she was fortunate to be selected among the second cohort of girls from the school to join the GGBC process in 2008. Asmahan says through the Circle, she was not only able to join a University and graduate, but has also developed life skills and enjoyed a lot of exposure that other girls can only imagine of.

She has attended several workshops organised by GGBC on a variety of issues ranging from sexual reproductive health, communication and leadership skills, financial literacy and job readiness. All these, she says, has helped her grow into a self-confident, morally upright and healthy woman.

She credits the Circle’s mentorship programme for opening her eyes to focus beyond the ceiling. Asmahan has had three mentors since she joined the Circle and describes the present one, Lori Godec, the wife to the USA envoy to Kenya as a great and tough lady who has helped her to do more than she believed she could achieve.

“We just clicked. We are compatible to each other and two months never passes before we meet,” she says of her.

For all the support she has received from GGBC, she has come to appreciate the importance of giving back to the society and is involved in the Circle through a mentoring initiative at her alma mater. She is also giving back to hundreds of girls in India, where she currently resides and is responsible for implementing the GGBC mentorship program for at-risk youth.

My name is Rosemary Njeri. I was born in 1993, as the first born of three children. I grew up in Wangige Lower Kabete, which is on the outskirts of Nairobi. Over the past couple of years, my Mum has been the sole breadwinner for our family, having to pay our school fees and taking care of all the expenses of the family.

Growing up was not easy, my parents had a small hostel, which burned down completely when I was in class six, and that is when the real struggle began. I remember when I finished my primary school final exams, I had performed very well and we were at a family gathering. One of my aunties said something that has since stuck with me. She mentioned that her son had not performed well in his primary school final exams, but nevertheless, he could enter high school because they could cover his school fees. It was very painful, but it was the truth because high school is not free in Kenya.

I applied to high school none the less and the day I was accepted into Kijabe Girls’ Secondary School I rejoiced. However, I was brought back to earth with the reality that there was no way my family could afford the school fees, let alone the requirements.

A friend of my mother visited and told us about a scholarship at St. Martin’s Secondary School in the Kibagare Slum. My Mum took a loan from a Chama to get me what I needed to get started. Unluckily, after admission, I found out that I did not get the scholarship we had hoped for. It was a struggle, but somehow we managed through the grace of God. Unfortunately, at the beginning of every term, as my school fees were paid late, I was sent home. This is when the school bursar took notice of our situation. They called my Mum and helped us secure a scholarship. It was more than I could ever ask for.

In July 2010, I was selected to join the Global Give Back Circle. I was in my last year of high school. I was immediately matched to a mentor, Angela Harris, a Senior Learning and Development Program Manager at Microsoft from Seattle, Washington in the USA. She has been the most amazing gift in my life. She helped me make sensible career choices, guided me in my Give Back Commitment, and when I almost gave up, she was always there to pick me up and give me just one more reason why I should never do so. She has been more than a mentor; she’s a big sister, and almost a mom. She plays all those roles in my life. She is God-sent and a wonderful woman. She has been my best friend, who somehow understands me, even before I can figure out what’s happening. I am one of the lucky ones, my mentor actually traveled all the way to Kenya to visit me. Imagine that.

Upon graduation, I learned that I would receive a scholarship from the MasterCard Foundation and Microsoft for a 9-month ICT Lab. I was told I would have a chance to study windows 7 configuration and CCNA. Math and logistics came easy to me, so I was very eager to learn about the world of computers and technology.

The ICT courses opened me to a totally new world that I am still exploring. The skills and all the sessions have been the most amazing thing, and have contributed to the confident and responsible person I am today. I am just about to complete my BS Degree in applied statistics and computing from Karatina University.  This amazing scholarship came from the people from the United States of America through the organization USAID Kenya. I love statistics and I love computing. I would never have aimed so high had my confidence not been built up so during the ICT Lab.

For the last two years my Give Back Commitment has been about restoring hope. I have focused on people with the same problems I had while growing up. I help students acquire scholarships from the same organization that helped me when I was in high school. I also mentor these same students and I visit their schools and family, just to get an overview of how they are doing in general. It has been a very motivating journey to see someone having hope again, and I hope that with time I will be able to expand and help more kids with scholarships. I am now working on registering my Charity-Based Organization in order to be able to reach more students and also get more funds for their studies.

I am passionate about empowering young people. I believe in “Education for all, but especially for girls.” Communities need to be enlightened on how they can balance youth empowerment, without taking for granted any specific gender. I am grateful for KCDF for implementing the Circle in Kenya. The Circle has been a great community; it brings several people from different backgrounds together to break the circle of poverty.

– Rosemary