Caroline Menach is the Principal of St. Elizabeth Girls’ Secondary School-Morpus and a Coordinator for Margo Day 4 Youth Empowerment-CBO. She is responsible for Curriculum implementation and mentorship of girls at St Elizabeth Girls’ Secondary School. Menach has 20 years of teaching experience and 10 years of mentoring girls at high school and at the HER Lab, based at Morpus, Kipkomo Sub County, West Pokot County. Ms. Menach’s leadership skills have enabled the girls who ran away from retrogressive cultural practices like Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and early marriages to find a home at St. Elizabeth Girls’ Secondary School. Her commitment and resilience to see the Pokot girl empowered and giving back to the community has seen over 500 at risk girls graduate to the HER Lab and get scholarships to various Universities and Colleges.

At MD4YES, Ms. Menach leads a team in identification of needy-vulnerable girls from the community who have excelled in their studies and enrolls them at HER Lab. She leads a team that networks with the Ministry of Education and World Vision in the advocacy of girls’ education and training of girls on Alternative Rites of Passage. She is passionate, committed, and resilient about girl child empowerment through education and skill development for a better tomorrow to the girl child and ultimately a transformed community.

Ms. Menach is a Lion Member of Lions International, a Melvin Jones Fellow (MJF) and a Secretary of Lions Club of Kitale, Patron to Kamorrow Golden Eagles Soccer team, Chairperson at St. Anne’s ACK Church and a Secretary of the Sub-County Principals’ Chapter. She lives in Kapenguria, West Pokot County-Northern Kenya. Her hobbies are studying the Bible, listening to Christian Music, mountain climbing, jogging and adventure travel.

Lynda has had fifteen years’ worth of experience in sales and marketing in the pharmaceutical industry before she became a stay-at-home mother of three children. During this time Lynda was active in organizations in Baltimore to improve the lives of poor women and their children such as the Baltimore Women’s Giving Circle, Baltimore Public Schools, Baltimore Catholic Schools, and her neighborhood association. Lynda has a BA in Biochemistry from Rutgers University and an MBA from the Johnson School of Management at Cornell University.

In early 2017 Lynda began sponsoring and mentoring Leah Cheptech from West Pokot. In October 2017 Lynda joined the GGBC trip to Kenya. During this trip Lynda met Margaret and Monica at a tea for new GGBC college graduates. Lynda has kept in touch with both girls and treated them to a weekend of sightseeing in Nairobi on a future trip. While in West Pokot Lynda met four girls, Rebecca, Scolar, Scholastica and Sheila, who did not have sponsors and Lynda agreed to sponsor all of them for a university education. Lynda found mentors for these four girls among her friends. In early 2018 Lynda decided to sponsor two Starehe graduates, Mercy and Laurette, and two girls from West Pokot, Judith and Felystus. Lynda found more mentors for these girls among her friends. In June 2018 Lynda returned to Kenya with her 22-year-old daughter, Annie, who had recently graduated from university and took nine girls to Lake Nakuru to see the animals, spend a night in a hotel and do a workshop on integrity. Lynda has since added two more girls, Sarah, a Starehe graduate, and Mercy, a current Starehe student. Lynda is still actively recruiting new sponsors and mentors for GGBC girls. She has grown to love her girls and is deeply passionate about empowerment and education for girls.