The Little School that Could in Kenya

Towering over the tin roof homes in Kibera, the new dormitory at the Kibera Girls Soccer Academy (KGSA) is the pride of the Makina neighborhood. This state of the art three story facility has a rooftop soccer field that just recently began providing a safe place for girls to study, eat, sleep (and dream). KGSA is a free, holistic high school that serves 130 girls every year located in the largest informal settlement – the largest slum – in Africa. Almost a million people live in a region the size of New York City’s Central Park with no running water, bathrooms or reliable electricity in their homes. This is where Kenya’s first free high school for girls (KGSA) was established.

In Kenya, 44% of girls don’t finish high school. Due to high costs for school fees and materials, few families can afford to send their children to secondary school. Sons take priority over daughters who are expected to take on the burden of household chores and are often married off in their teen years for a dowry. Girls who are able to attend high school regularly miss class when they’re on their periods because they do not have sanitary pads and therefore fall behind in their studies. During the pandemic, rates of girls dropping out of school, gender-based violence and teen pregnancy skyrocketed across Kenya.

It’s no wonder that every year over 100 families apply for 35 coveted spots in the KGSA incoming freshwoman class. When mothers, grandmothers, and aunties hear about KGSA, they are eager to give the girls in their family an opportunity that they never had. Research shows that girls who earn a secondary education earn twice as much and women with higher education earn up to three times as much as their peers with no education. In a community where the majority of households live on $2 or less a day, a high school education can break the cycle of poverty in just one generation!

Take KGSA alumna Beatrice Awino for example. After losing both parents, she moved to Kibera to live with her aunt and uncle. They couldn’t afford her high school fees, but thankfully she was able to enroll at KGSA. She and classmates walked to and from school each day harassed by boys on the way. For many of the girls, school lunch was their only meal. Beatrice graduated from KGSA in 2012 and received a scholarship from a U.S. supporter to pursue a diploma program followed by a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce. Today Beatrice works as a marketing consultant supporting herself, her sister and her nephew who suffers from rickets because of malnutrition. Beatrice credits KGSA for her success and describes KGSA as not just a school, but as her home and the only safe home for the rest of the students.

KGSA began as a soccer club for girls in 2002 by Kiberan resident Abdul Kassim who recognized the unique challenges that girls faced in his community. Over the years KGSA has grown from a soccer club to a one room school for13 girls to a “holistic school” whose seniors have beaten the national average on the Kenya high school exit exams in 2018 and 2019 earning them scholarships and entry to University!  The KGSA students out-performed schools in Kibera as well as the rich areas of Kenya!! To date KGSA has graduated over 370 girls (every girl has graduated high school) including 70 who have been able to pursue higher studies.

KGSA’s model cares for the whole girl adding new programs every year to meet their students’ needs. In addition to academics, KGSA focuses on health and wellness providing a school counselor and free sanitary pads; extra-curricular activities like sports and life skills clubs; and college scholarships for the top performing students. KGSA’s dormitory opened in July of 2021 providing a safe, stable learning environment to 46 girls in the first year thanks to a grant from the Girls Opportunity Alliance. KGSA hopes to soon expand boarding to all of its students. It costs $1,000 a year to provide room and board ($1000 for each student to attend school without the dormitory).

Beatrice and two other KGSA alumna shared their powerful narratives with Simonetta Lein, online TV host recognized by Forbes Magazine as the number 5 “Most Influential Woman in the World” and a “wish-maker” who founded The Wishwall Foundation in 2015 to address issues of equality and to “give a voice to the voiceless”  and “help make meaningful wishes come true.” After meeting the KGSA grads, Simonetta saw the impact that this small but mighty school had on the lives of its girls. She generously stepped in to sponsor and publicly follow one KGSA student through an entire school year to raise awareness for the school and to support a deserving student through higher education and a better future.

You can follow her story and learn more about the Kibera Girls Soccer Academy and Simonetta’s Wishwall Foundation at www.kgsafoundation.org and  www.thewishwall.org.

KGSA continues to beat the odds and is truly “The Little School that Could.”