Overcoming to Provide for Others: Ann & Faith's Story
For Ann and Faith, hope was restored when they found emotional and spiritual healing as well as the opportunity to learn a skill to provide for themselves and their mother. But many other young women in rural Kenya are still facing the same struggles that make them vulnerable. Since Covid-19, “School closures, barriers to distance learning, economic insecurity, food insecurity, gender-based violence, and the health risks of COVID-19 have all increased adolescent girls’ concerns and feelings of hopelessness about their own educational futures.” (Brookings).
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A Counselor's Perspective on Counseling at Neema
I have learned to love unconditionally, and this has helped me extend it to the young women at Neema and the people I encounter without passing judgment…. We do trauma counseling at Neema to help our students to spiritually, physically, emotionally, and psychologically address their personal experiences and come to terms with and recover from traumatic events by becoming survivors and knowing their true identity and worth.
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Graduation Day by Neema's Program Director
This year, we gave time to each guardian to say something to their girl as she graduated. It was the most emotional time for me that day: To hear fathers and mothers tell their daughters that they are proud of them and that they love them. Especially that part. You see, in this culture here in Kitale, it is not common for a parent to tell their child that they love them. Love is shown in other ways but not usually expressed in touch or words.
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3rd Year Student Winnie Shares Her Dreams | VIDEO
Watch 3rd year student Winnie M share about her experience in the Neema Fashion Show, her dream of life post-Neema, and how the skills she’s developed have changed these dreams. Because you took action and invested generously in the hopes and dreams of the young women at Neema, young women like Winnie have opportunities they never could have imagined.
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Neema Students Host a Fashion Show!
“Not only does the Fashion Show give them an opportunity to be creative, make what they want, and show off the skills they’ve learned over the past three years, it also boosts their confidence as they head off after graduation to begin working and providing for themselves and their families.”
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A Chance for Everyone by our Tailoring Instructor
Working alongside young women has been my passion. It has been my joy to show love and empathy. I have been able to gain an understanding of the different backgrounds our girls come from and how it affects their behavior, and that has greatly changed how I handle them. My life has been transformed in this encounter with them. Indeed, you cannot give what you do not have. So I seek to gain patience in order to be patient. I seek to have hope in order to give hope. And by working with young women, I’ve realized there is potential in every young woman, especially after they know who they are.
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Lydia: Empowered to Forgive and Provide for Others
At Neema, she received counseling and was able to forgive herself and others who had hurt her. She was a hard worker in class and says she was able to concentrate because her heart was now free… Lydia now supports herself, her kids, and her parents, and when she gets lots of work, she hires other Neema alumni to work for her! She currently even has employees and is also actively involved in her church and prays regularly. Lydia says she’s found new hope and vision since being at Neema.
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Transforming Communities: A Reflection by Our Executive Director
I just came back from Neema a couple of weeks ago—not that I did not want to go earlier but, because of COVID-19, we postponed this trip until we felt it was safe for both our Kenyan colleagues and us to travel there. Since I started working at Neema back in January, I have talked (mostly over Zoom, COVID oblige) with the teams here and in Kenya about Neema. I have seen pictures and videos. And I even learned some Swahili. So, in a way, going to Neema was not like going to an unfamiliar place.
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Sarah’s Guardians Provide New Hope
When first year student Sarah first joined Neema in 2021 with her baby Emmanuel, she was shy, didn’t interact much with the other students, and wouldn’t contribute in the group counseling sessions. Sarah has suffered from rejection and in sixth grade, she became pregnant and had to drop out of school. But since coming to Neema, she told our counselor that she can now see a future and her lost hope is restored: “God has blessed me with Neema where I am loved and listened to."
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