SIANOI: STAYING IN SCHOOL THANKS TO A NEW DAY SECONDARY SCHOOL

Fifteen-year-old Sianoi lives near Entasekera, a key market center for the Loita region where we have been working to start a day secondary school for three years. A school there can ultimately serve many hundreds of children, and gratefully, we worked with the community to overcome several barriers preventing the school from becoming a reality in 2024.

“Change is possible, but it needs time and understanding.”- Christine Mpoe, our Naikarra Region Supervisor often reminds us. Sianoi’s story is a prime example of the way that the new day secondary schools we build in partnership with communities can have a profound impact on the arc of an individual life. Sianoi, pictured at left, became the first girl to start attending the new Entasekera Day Secondary School after we partnered with the community to start it last year. Her cohort is meeting in a primary school while they await construction of their first classrooms, which we are in the process of fundraising in partnership with the community — with local women, for the first time, leading the way.

The fourth daughter of an older, traditional father, Sianoi is the first daughter that he didn’t arrange a marriage for at a young age, and the first to gain his blessing to continue on to secondary school - a blessing he gave only because the new school at Entasekera offers a low-cost, nearby option. Arranging marriages for daughters used to be the best way for parents to secure their futures. The idea that education might offer a different, more empowering pathway for both their daughters and their family is a new idea for many parents. It’s also an idea requiring significant faith in the unknown, as the return doesn’t become tangible for years down the road.

Our goal with our day secondary school classroom construction program is to ensure that the infrastructure exists for parents to secure their daughter’s futures in new ways. While poverty still creates challenges, the new access to education that day schools create for poorer families can be profound