The vision of Neema is more than symptom management. The way to address poverty, unwanted pregnancies, being orphaned, unpaid labor, alcoholism, and other everyday problems and abuses in rural Kenya is more than just helping survivors. It’s addressing emotional health—not only by attending to the manifestation of a problem, but by asking the question, “Why are people falling victim to this problem?”

Neema, meaning “grace” in Swahili, is a tailoring trade school for vulnerable young women in Kitale, Kenya. Girls who would otherwise have no opportunities beyond 8th grade are provided with skills training, counseling, and discipleship. Program Director, Winnie Kiunga, shares, “In 2019 we hired two additional staff members to our counseling department which has helped us reach more girls and have more impact in terms of their mental and psychosocial health.”

While poverty and lack of opportunity are huge factors in deterring young people from growing into healthy adults, one of the most glaring and unaddressed problems lies in parenting. After a session with guardians, one student’s grandmother said, "I’ve been very unkind to my grandchild. I used to insult her and belittle her. I realize now that I was misplacing anger and bitterness that I have against her mother. But I want to change. I want to be the one who gives her love. I want to apologize and ask for another chance to be a good grandmother." Sometimes heart changes take years. But sometimes they just take one little correction—a moment of humility when we see the domino effect of even the smallest of our actions.

Those who subscribe to Effective Altruism say that for a problem to be worth tackling, it must be important, tractable, and neglected. Why? The first is self-explanatory—solving the problem in question ought to make the world better off. Tractability asks how solvable the problem is and if the cost of working on it will be worth the beneficial outcome. Is another problem more reasonable to address? Neglectedness offers insight into how much space there is to work on this problem. If the market is already crowded with other nonprofits, charities, and do-gooders trying to bring clean water to remote villages in Africa, why would yours also tackle this problem?

One of the greatest problems with generosity is when good intentions have a crippling effect. If a charity tries to help a community, but in turn, just builds the house for them or gives children in developing nations dolls and hairclips, the community is not learning to get up. It isn’t developing. Working with genuine compassion in mind must cause beneficial and sustainable change.

Neema is known for empowering young women and creating opportunities to reduce extreme poverty. With the pull of the fabric, the needle moving back and forth, having a job as a seamstress will dramatically cut a young woman’s likelihood of falling into further poverty - it can offer financial stability. But employment alone won’t fix issues of anger, shame, abuse, violence, alcoholism, prostitution, and drugs.

Those living in poverty “tend to describe their condition in more psychological and social terms,” says Brian Fikkert, author of When Helping Hurts, like “shame, inferiority, powerlessness… not as a lack of material things such as food, money, clean water, medicine, or housing.” Emotional health cannot be left to the wayside. The pain in someone’s life will never heal if they focus only on personal success. That is plainly evident in the drug and loneliness epidemics in the US. Many are so driven to achieve the “dream life” of accomplishment that they forget to prioritize emotional health and give ourselves healthy outlets.

Before Neema’s guardian training, Rosaline, the granddaughter of the woman quoted above said, “I asked God why he didn’t let me die in my mum’s womb because I wasn’t worth being born. My grandmother always uses words to break me. She tells me I am useless, stupid, will never amount to anything, and that I will end up a prostitute like my mother.” If changing these words for other young women like Rosaline is important, possible, and not yet being addressed, then can we let go of our two and a half hours of social media per day in order to direct more of our attention toward those who need it? Their transformation is within our reach.

Roseline went on to say that “Since coming to Neema, I’ve heard only words of love and encouragement. I’ve been told I am beautiful, that I am worthy, that I can do and pass exams, that my past doesn’t have to define me.” After spending three years at Neema, we believe that she will experience this in her very core—that it will not only be what she’s told or says, but what daily lives in her.

Effectively Addressing the Victimization of Women in Rural Kenya