This is Jenny. She lives in a small house with her single mother and three siblings in a slum in Bulbul, a small province in Ngong, Kenya. She is a bright, talented, and caring 18-year-old girl who dreams of one day attending college and training to become a doctor to help the people in her community.
We met Jenny at a reusable menstrual pad distribution at her local community soccer club in 2019. As a child, she loved playing soccer and joined a team for young girls in her area, the Bul Queens. For Jenny, having her monthly period was a time of great anxiety. She often struggled to find the money to buy disposable pads, which meant that she would use ripped up rags to stop the bleeding, but it would often leak. She was very embarrassed one day when she bled through her soccer shorts, and so afterwards wouldn’t participate when she was menstruating. This was common amongst the other girls on the team.
At the distribution, Maddi taught the girls vital health education about puberty, menstrual cycles, and the importance of safe sex, including the use of contraception. They all received a pack of reusable menstrual pads, which allowed Jenny to overcome her fear of playing soccer when she was on her period. The feelings of shame and embarrassment went away, and she gained a lot more confidence in herself.
When the pandemic hit, Jenny’s mother lost her job. Things at home were challenging, and sometimes she and her siblings would go without food for days, if not weeks at a time. Having built a good friendship with Maddi at the distribution in June 2020, Jenny reached out for help. She had a fantastic idea of starting a boiled egg business to help support her family during this difficult time but needed $200 for startup costs. Evie Grace Foundation donors fundraised the money for Jenny in a matter of days, allowing her to set up a small food stall alongside a busy walkway to sell her boiled eggs. Her business has done very well and allowed the family to become self-sufficient. At just 18, Jenny is now the most significant contributor to her family’s finances, putting food on the table and ensuring that her siblings can continue attending school.
Jenny has had a hard life, and she sacrifices a lot for her family, but her dream is so big!
Through the support of Evie Grace Foundation’s donors, she has managed to start and run a successful business by herself, learning the required planning, organising, and bookkeeping skills through online training sessions with Maddi. This is no small feat! She hopes one day to have enough money to put herself through college and make her dream of becoming a doctor a reality! Because of your help, she faces a much brighter future for herself, her family, and her community.
With your support, we can help more girls like Jenny break from poverty cycles, gain new skills and confidence, and achieve their dreams. Please help us reach our goal of building a safe, transitional home for street girls in Malawi in 2021.
The power of people is real, and your engagement with us has been essential to our work. Together, we have achieved so much, but there is much more to do.
To find out more about how you can support our Therapeutic Home for Girls, including our ‘Fund a Room’ program, see here.
