A family in Bamba village Ganze constituency in Kilifi county has donated 20 acres of land for the establishment of a girls secondary school to help address the challenge of teenage pregnancies and high drop out cases.
The family from Mwndudhi clan say they made the decision after finding out that many girls were dropping out of school due to the long distance covered to and from school which exposes them to early sexual behavior.
It emerged that young girls have to walk for very long distances to access school and the worst is going back very late at night which exposes them to bad behaviors.
Ganze residents attributed the elusive girl child education in the region to lack of proper infrastructure, which forces them to drop out at an early stage due to the challenges.
Locals say the entire constituency has only two girls schools and the normal mixed schools are very far away, which makes the girls to easily fall prey to early sexual affairs.
Kaiungu Koi, a member of the family who donated land said he was the only elder remaining in the extended family. He decided to give out the land for the betterment of the girl child.
Speaking during the groundbreaking ceremony of a construction of four classrooms by the National government constituency development funds he said they made the decision in good faith because such infrastructure will promote development.
‘’We are optimistic that with the launch of the construction work they will support the development which will go a long way in transforming the area’ he said.
The problem they said has led to an increase in cases of teenage pregnancies and high drop out rates as girls lack a secure environment for studies .
In Bamba and Ganze ward for example there is only one girls secondary school and the rest are mixed schools which has always threatened the girl child education.
Christine Mwenda, a resident from Chpungu in Bamba who was present during the groundbreaking ceremony graced by the area member of parliament Teddy Mwmbire said they were happy to see the upcoming girls school as they had only one girls school which is over seven kilometers away.
She said children used to face challenges of wildlife such as elephants and boys who normally prey them for sex that contributed to early pregnancies.
“As residents we stand to benefit in a big way in the form of business due to the children and teachers who will be at the school who will require different products,’’ she said.
Mwenda said their girls will also no longer walk for long distances to reach school due to its proximity to the village.
She appealed to the government to build more girls schools in every location so as to reduce the distance to one kilometer for girls to acces school.
The MP on his part said the new school being built will be the third in the entire constituency and the first in Bamba ward.
He said Bamba has 25 public primary schools and private schools but there were no public girls secondary schools which forced young girls to walk for long distances to reach school.
The legislator said they were constructing the first four classrooms and expressed optimism that they will attract more girls after the Godom secondary is fully changed to a boys school.
‘’We expect by the end of next year to build four new girls schools which will have made the number of girls school to six in the entire constituency. One of them will be the special girls school which shall cater for victims of teenage pregnancy,’’ she said.
The entire constituency he said has 35 secondary schools but there is still shortage of infrastructure due to the increased number of girls.
Currently he said the school they were building will be a boarding school which will be the new form of investments to enable the girls to permanently stay in school and help them access education fully without external influence which could lead to teenage pregnancy.
“We appeal to investors and well wishers to come and support our initiative so as to ensure we achieve our objective of completing the girls school,’’ he said.
Mwambire said teenage pregnancies is a big problem in his constituency because girls were forced to walk for a long distance to reach school and at times they get hooked up into sex with bodabda operators who offer to help them.
He said with the idea of boarding school for girls it will be a game changer in the war against teenage pregnancy.
The MP also called on the National government to release funds so as to enable developments on the ground as currently his constituency has Sh. 65 million that is yet to be released that’s why they resolved together not to pass the supplementary budget until the money is released.
Mwathethe Nixon assistant chief Chapungu said they have been waiting for such development for so long so as to help uplift the education standards in the area.
Currently the nearest school he said is Godom and soon the school will be turned into a boys school which will completely lock out the girls.
With such developments of infrastructure for girls it will be easier to address the challenges girls face so as to enable them access education easily without walking for long distances.