Article Details


Article


Lights


| |

LONGISA BEACON OF HOPE EMPOWRING WOMEN AND GIRLS IN BOMET


Date: 21-11-2022


Longisa Beacon of Hope Is a CBO Operating in Bomet County Sub counties. The group was incepted in 2012 with 20 members after realization that girls enrolled in class one do not sit their KCPE exams due to alterable risks like undergoing FGM, SGBV, Teenage pregnancies, absenteeism, criminal behaviors, mental and discipline problems. We have done this through advocacy and Empowering the girls, women and Communities around them so that they have a backbone of withstanding Peer Pressure.
" After we received financial support from CREAW under the Voice Women Leadership (WVL) project ,we strive to end all forms of Sexual Gender Based Violence against Women and Girls." said Mary Chebet.

Susan Mitei in her remarks said "Since our engagement with CREAW, we have trained and mentored girls since Nov/Dec.2020 on ARP and ending all forms of SGBV to date. We have trained men, women and local administration on ending all forms of Gender Based Violence in the community. During our training sessions, turn out increased with time we were also able to rescue six girls from early marriage during the training period".

she added "we have continually engaged with the county and national governments to find ways of ending SGBV and provision of sanitary towels to girls.
The trainings organized by CREAW were very insightful as it helped us figure out how the organization can be sustained through other partners. We have gained skills on sustainability and resource mobilization training, Financial management and MEAL. We were part of National Women conference organized by FIDA in 2021. We have also attended a WROs sensitization on media communication skills by Crawn trust where we learnt that Media is a very resourceful tool that has potential to intensify and amplify women's voices on issues affecting them. CREAW has also trained us on use of social media platforms for partnerships, networking and resource mobilization. Initially our organization didn't have an operational office but since we partnered with CREAW, we now have an operational well equipped office."


The organization has established partnerships with Paran women from Narok whom they share similar ideologies. The organization has been able to carry out all activities planned within the community and attain it’s goal.

Through CREAW Capacity Building they have built and establish networks with new partners. These are Kuza Nia (Zana Africa and Rhyculture) whom in collaboration with are implementing SRHR in the community. The two partners capacity build the grassroots organization which aims to grow organizational capacity to deliver trainings to adolescents and youth in order to help reduce the harmful impacts of Covid'19 with more focus on mental health

Beacon of Hope has been able to establish strong networks with political sector, ministry of interior ,Ministry of Education/TSC. The climax of the whole program was when ministry of education appreciated the program and as one ways of sustainability, it promised to use the teachers who participated in the training as champions advocates to champion the rights of women and girls achievement of outcomes