As the adage goes education is the key and at the same time a social equalizer in the society, being born and raised in Maasai community as a girl, is a great challenge since education for girl is not treated as basic need or even a right but a privilege. There are numerous challenges and barriers preventing many girls from accessing education which include; early marriages, female genital mutilation, poverty, child labor school distance, culture, climate change among others. All these have blocked them from having opportunies to better their lives and hence denied them the enjoyment of individual freedom but instead subject them to social injustices hence making them unable to enjoy several of their human rights.
Its only by understanding the impacts of these barriers that significant and meaningful increase in the number of girls accessing education can be achieved. from the recent trainings of Viva girls which are organized by Olorukoti resource and knowledge center during ever holiday, the matters above are really affecting the girls to begin with the Maasai culture the girls are categorized as properties hence their education is not compulsory as they can be exchanged anytime for dowry which has encouraged a lot of young girls to drop out of school.Viva girls program started back in the year 2020 with a very low turnout of girls but the number kept increasing and in at this days we can get up to 600 girls when all stations are combined that is Lepolosi,Oloibor soito,Endonyo oonkopit,Olomismis,Ildolisho and Enooretet.
It’s a nice platform for them since they interact with others, express themselves, give their views, experiences and testimonies about their lives and how the program has impacted their education and lifestyle back at home. Their mothers developed in joining them during the trainings since it’s a perfect opportunity to train them on traditional knowledge and generally how to conduct themselves as girls they also testify the changes they have seen on them starting from reduction on early pregnancies and marriages and better performance in school. Anytime a girl mess in the family their mothers are blamed as the course but this time round they have earned their mothers respect to the fathers and the society at large after applying everything they were taught back at home. Empowering a girl is indeed empowering the whole community.