Leadership and Empowerment Workshop 2024

Sharon Obado, Head of Programs, Women in sustainable Enterprises (WISE), and Celestine Atieno, IT Risk Assurance Associate, PWC Kenya. Both Twiga Alumni (Limuru Girls and The Kenya High School).

Over the weekend of April 20, we were privileged to be in the midst of the current Twiga girls, Twiga alumni and myriad of speakers who selflessly offered their time to come speak to the girls. This was at the annual Twiga workshop on “Leadership and Empowerment” that was held at Ratta Girls’ Hostel in Kisumu County.

As proud alumni of Twiga, these were invaluable two days, learning and exchanging with the current 26 girls and 4 other Alumni. The workshop also attracted a few gate crashers (several girls and a boy) who were warmly welcomed, making a total of 43 participants and 8 guest speakers.

What stood out for us was the choice of formidable Kenyan women who have dared to dream and are now in the reality of their dreams, as guest speakers.

Some of our takeaways were:

• Being grounded on values. We did a recap of the Twiga values - Respect, Hard work, Perseverance, Determination and Godliness.

• Finding your purpose through identifying your ability, gifts, and passion. This was crowned by crafting your own wheel of life from our amazing Guest of Honour, Kisumu County First Lady and Managing Director of African Cancer Foundation, Her Excellency Dorothy Nyong'o.

• What is your aim in life and what are you destined for? Posed Hon. Beatrice Odongo, the CECM for Sports, Culture, Gender and Youth Affairs for Kisumu County. Your aim guides you to your vision.

• Catherine Soi, Founder of Soi Pallet Designs, sharing with the girls her life story and how she pivoted back from poverty and emphasizing on the value of persistence and resilience. Catherine reminded us that a Twiga girl stands tall (confidence); sees far (vision); reaches the highest peak (leadership in all aspects of life); is gentle and beautiful (still remains feminine).

• Volunteering as a young person was a key take away form Ruth Nzomo, SDGs Advocate, COMESA and Wevyn Muganda, Deputy CEO Asante Africa Foundation who from their experiences clearly proved to us that volunteering, apart from giving back to society, enables one to gain skills that adds to your portfolio. They are now leading and working with global organisations in their youth. The girls indeed needed to hear this!

• The girls had an amazing session on the triple threat with Easter Achieng’, Executive Director, Kenya Female Advisory Organisation (KEFEADO). She shared alarming statistics with us such as “98 new HIV infections occur every week among adolescent girls in Kenya”. This is also the first time girls heard of terms like “gender justice”. What a session! It ended with Twiga providing reusable sanitary towels to each girl.

• It was an enlightening moment to incorporate mental health and our amazing Alumni, Maureen Oginga, a trained counselling psychologist, took us through how to identify stress and its management. We realized we all needed this session.

• We also had a line up from Ruth Ogumbo and Maureen Outa, one of the first Twiga Alumni who shared some words of wisdom with the current Twiga girls, encouraging them to pursue their dreams unapologetically driven by passion and confidence. They also emphasized on the importance of choosing the right friends and making informed choices.

Young girls and especially vulnerable ones need people to guide them, hold their hands, motivate them, cheer them on and just assure them that they are on the right path. These is all we did over our 3 days summit. We watched movies together, played games, interacted with speakers and the girls networked not only among themselves but also with the Twiga alumni in attendance.

Making vision boards together was one of the key highlights of the workshop as every girl was able to piece together a pictorial representation of what they visualized their future to be and carried them home to be a constant reminder of their goals in life.

Awards were received, we danced, we had runway moments yet remained gentle and beautiful.

We can write and keep writing but to culminate this, Twiga is raising not only girls who excel in their academics but also nurturing all rounded individuals who can identify their gifts and tap into them, but most importantly these young girls gaining exposure and building their confidence.

Much thanks to Nyagoy Nyong’o for not only being vocal about girl child empowerment but also being a significant contributor to educating and mentoring more than 80 girls, and counting, through Twiga. Her profound actions allude to Nelson Mandela’s words, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”.

A job well done Nyagoy!

We are also thankful to those who have continued to contribute and support Twiga in its vision and mission to educate and empower girls from vulnerable families.