ROCK: Reaching Out with Compassion in Kibera

Girls in Kibera face multifaceted challenges due to their environment and family struggles. The slum environment often leads to peer pressure, resulting in early marriages, teenage pregnancies, and school dropouts. Additionally, financial constraints within families make it difficult for girls to access essential personal items like sanitary pads.

At ROCK KENYA, we are dedicated to overcoming these obstacles by providing mentorship and access to sanitary pads and other basic necessities. We are proud to report that the girls we supported in previous years have become mentors to our current group of girls. This serves as both an inspiration for us to continue our work and a testament to the direct impact of our program.

Since our early days, we have found out that some of our bright learners failed their school exams not due to insufficient preparation but to sitting for exams with empty stomachs. Furthermore, some of our learners struggled to concentrate in class due to skipped meal sessions at home. As a result, we are committed to supporting our learners by establishing a robust feeding program that ensures they have access to balanced meals during the school holidays and on weekends at our facility in Kibera.

Our feeding program has recently expanded to include junior high school students, for whom we cover school meal fees. Our goal is to further grow the program by providing daily food baskets to learners whose families struggle to consistently provide supper and/or breakfast.

You can support us in realizing this dream by donating via https://rockkenya.org/index.php/donate/

Today, Tamika, an undergraduate from Strathmore University who currently volunteers with us held a session with our students on a variety of topics including peer pressure, time management, creating & maintaining good rapport with parents, and stress management.

Now that schools are closed for a period of 7 weeks (longer period than usual), it’s important for us to improvise interesting and educative activities that would help to keep the students busy and learning. Life skill sessions are one among other ways that we’re planning to help motivate and keep busy our students during this holiday.