Khuluka (right) and fellow member of the safe school committee Lameck Samu in one of the classes where maintained desks are being used
“Both our committee and the teachers got trained by Nzotheka proj-ect and this made us realize that we were perpetuating gender inequalities and gender-based violence at the school. Together with the teachers and school management committee, we started taking nec-essary actions to make the school safe and conducive for both boys and girls” – Khuluka explained.
The teachers started giving manual work equally to boys and girls. Mr Misoya become a mentor for boys and started conducting weekly mentorship sessions for boys to gloom them towards changing attitudes on gender roles so that they treat girls without gender-based violence of any kind.
“Together with the community, we contributed money to maintain the damaged desks and 61 desks were successfully maintained and became useful. We distributed them to Standards 5,6,7 and 8 for a start so that girls in those classes who are adolescents get to sit on the desks just like the boys.” – explained Lameck Samu who is a member of the safe school committee. According to Samu, the school also created a suggestion box where learners can report all grievances including gender-based violence cases, and make suggestions on how things ought to be improved at the school.
Nanyowa primary school is slowly becoming a safe and conducive environment for learning hence keeping girls in school. This is the fruit of GGE project’s intervention. The Keeping Girls in School component of the project is being implemented by CRECCOM in partnership with PLAN International, with funding from NORAD. The project aims at reducing child early forced marriages and early pregnancies; and contributing to girls’ education attainment.