Dr. Kakenya Ntaiya meeting with the community elders
Lee-Ann Olwage
The indigenous Maasai are one of Kenya’s most marginalized communities. The majority of Maasai girls undergo female genital mutilation (FGM) and are married before the age of 19. In the communities Kakenya’s Dream serves, only 17% of girls complete a primary education (elementary school), and only 5% complete a secondary education (high school).
Founded in 2008 by Dr. Kakenya Ntaiya, Kakenya’s Dream began as a single school serving 30 vulnerable Maasai girls. Today, Kakenya’s Dream is a robust nonprofit organization supporting girls holistically with a foundation of quality education in addition to community-based health and leadership programs designed to empower girls to become agents of change, end harmful traditional practices including FGM and child marriage, and transform communities in rural Kenya.
Dr. Ntaiya grew up in the Maasai community. After surviving FGM, escaping child marriage, and negotiating with her father and village elders to stay in school, she became the first woman from her village to attend university in the United States. She went on to receive a PhD in education and returned home, determined to provide a pathway to education and empowerment for every girl in her community and beyond.
“Once marriage has been arranged (for me, that was at just five years old) and we have undergone FGM, our schooling ends because we’re expected to start families and become homemakers. Education for girls was only seen as a tool to socialize us for marriage. Without a formal education, professional development opportunities, and the resources and support to pursue these things, this path often locks girls and women into lifelong poverty. I knew that a different, more empowered life, free from forced marriage, FGM, and poverty was possible for girls and women in my community, and it became my dream to make it a reality. And so, Kakenya’s Dream was born.” – Dr. Kakenya Ntaiya
The Kakenya Centers for Excellence, two full-support girls’ boarding schools, provide high-quality education to the most vulnerable girls in rural Kenya. When students graduate from these, they enter the Network for Excellence program, which supports them as they make the critical transition to secondary school (high school) and tertiary education (college/university).
Kakenya’s Dream also provides its students, as well as boys and girls in partner schools across rural Kenya, with comprehensive sex education, information about the dangers of FGM and child marriage, knowledge of their legal rights, and life skills training.
Through our Global Partners program, Population Connection supports a growing number of grassroots organizations around the world working to increase access to education, public health and family planning services. Their…
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