These Kenyan women ages 18-28 left school in primary grades due to financial hardship. Many are married and have children. There are over twenty women now attending primary school daily. The women are working to complete an 8^th grade education and hope to go on to attend secondary and trade schools. 

 Success and Progress:

While working hard to obtain their certification, these women continue to work manual labor jobs and raise their children. 

In February 2009, generous donors helped raise $20,000 at Give Us Wings’ Many Strong and Beautiful Women event which helped fund a scholarship program for the Victoria Young Women’s Group. It will also help support the funding of a water tank for the school and surrounding area, so these young women can count on clean water everyday to help prevent illness and save lives.

In the summer of 2009, through the generosity of Linda and Peter Quinn, owners of Cafe Latté in St. Paul, MN, The Victoria Young Women’s Group Academy was built!

And through the generosity of Minneapolis residents Ann Albright and Dave Thompson (who volunteered in Nyaoga in 2008), the school is fully equipped, including an Internet café! Prior to this addition, the nearest Internet café was 2-hr car ride away.

Each day the young women go to school. They are currently studying for their 8^th grade certification exam, which they will take in December 2009.  And since the building is solar powered, the rooms are lighted. This means that in the evenings, after they’ve done all their daily work and put their kids to bed, the young women can return to school and study. This is a significant and exciting change!

And early each morning, before the young women arrive, the older women in Nyaoga use the rooms in the school to develop their math, reading and business skills. The Nyaoga Women’s Group Chairwomen’s son has taken on the role as their teacher.

Made from non-fire bricks, this beautiful school was built by twelve men from the village who had helped build the Nyaoga Medical Clinic staff housing. Since this was their second time building with this technique, have a specialized skill and now are certified to work on their own or go work for other contractors.  This is a very exciting and life-changing development.

As the young women move on to the next grade, they are now working on deciding to how determine who will become the next students, and what the next steps will be.

The Victoria Young Women’s Group Academy would have been a dream come true for Grace Atieno, a 22-yr-old mother from Nyaoga who passed away in 2004 from AIDS. She dreamt that one day her village would have a school where women were encouraged to learn how to support themselves. Her most treasured lifetime memory was chasing butterflies outside of primary school before she was forced to leave. The Victoria school’s logo, the butterfly, symbolizes Grace’s dream of providing the women of Nyaoga a way of out of their daily struggles.

Current Needs and Goals:

Scholarships are needed now for these amazing young women, so that they can continue their education. Scholarships are $2,000/person per year. We encourage you to sponsor one or more students, or to contribute to the general fund and help make this dream a reality for more young women.