MINUTES ON FIRST MEETING WITH THE GIRL POWER CLUBS AFRICA PATRONS SATURDAY 15TH MARCH 2014
AT THE SADILI RESTRAUNT
Members
Present
Dr Liz Odera – Girl Power Clubs Africa
Patron/Founder/Director
Jayoung Naphtalie Margaret – Project Assistant
Girl Power Clubs Africa
Tr. Michael – Patron Girl Power Clubs St.
Catherine’s/ Celtic
Mr. Orero Anthony (Assistant Coach) – Patron Girl Power
Clubs Olympic High School
Mr. Charles Mingo- Patron Girl Power Clubs
Nazarene Self Help School
Apologies
for absent members
All other patrons from other schools were:
1.
Nairobi Day – Out of Town on
Workshop
2.
Huruma Girls – Changing patrons
as their former was transferred
3.
Olympic Primary , Holy Unity High
, Holy Unity Primary, Langata Barracks
High– Had Saturday class
4.
Malezi Schools- Out on School
games
Agenda of Meeting
Ø Welcome
and Introduction
Ø Reading
of meeting Agenda
Ø Each
patron talks on and reviews on:
-
The programmes so far
-
The number of girl per school
-
Sessions attendance of both girls
and girl power staff
-
Quality of the sessions
-
The sports programme in the
school for the girls
-
The achievements and challenges
so far
-
What are the behaviour changes
they have noticed/ what is the impact of the programme on the girl’s
1.
Academics
2.
Participation in extra curricular
activities
3.
Leadership roles and general behaviour changes
Finally each patron was to share what they
feel should be
1: Included in the Girl Power Programme to
improve it
2. What has changed
3. Improvements for the future
The meeting was steered by Project Assistant
Jayoung and the following are notes from the meeting.
St. Catherine’s Primary School
St. Catherine joined Girl Power Clubs in the
3rd of school academic year in 2013 and they recognise a number of
positive changes coupled with challenges as they adjust to the club activities.
The school having joined us in third term does
lack a girl ‘’goal champion ‘’ and there fore running of sessions on their own
has been quite a challenge. They have no sports equipment to participate in any
sports as now though the girls main sport is football. They meet once a week on
Thursdays from 3:10 PM to 4:30 PM at the
school Hall which they consider as safe space for the girls and have in turn
shown their comfort of the venue . The meetings are often chaired by a female
teacher from the school, sometimes Goal Champion from another school (Caroline
from Malezi High) or Girl power staff. External visits from us are sometimes
irregular but they do receive communication frequently.
On the positive, the patron noted the girls
who joined the club gradually began having more serious approach towards
things, required less supervision, their school attendance generally increased
and so did their performance in academics. With regards to academics 4 out of
the girls who were KCPE candidates at time of joining last year did score more
than 300 marks out of a possible 500. Mr. Michael did attribute the success to
their participation in the club and the girls have joined high schools in
Nyanza and Western parts of Kenya.
He requested to get the session guides for
the girls, have a girl trained as goal champion and once a while have sessions
with us on Saturdays in the afternoon when possible.
Nazarene Self Help School
Nazerene
is ‘’patroned’’ by Mr Charles
Mingo and has other female teachers attached to the girls such as Tr.
Millicent. The patron says they joined Girl Power when we started but some of
their girls have been to Sadili way before in 2002.Their first encounter with
us as group was during our first Sisterhood World Cup.
 |
| Nazarene at Sisterhood World Cup 2012 |
Their first challenge
was how to gather the girls together, after which the question of where to play
and train came up as the school lacked sports facilities including a field and
the teacher has to talk to a neighboring school to allow his students to use
the field on specific days.
Since then, despite lack of field the girls
continue to compete in our sports events very well and when they cannot do
sports they engage in other extra curricular activities such as debates and
have done exceptionally well. Their participation in the debates has been a
major indicator that the girls are gaining more confidence, able to argue out
issues and organise their thoughts well even when confronted with random debate
topics at competitions without prior knowledge of the topic that they might
have. One of the topics they debated on was ‘’digital technology has done more good than damage’’ . The girls
participate better in sessions and try to complete the sessions over time frame
given.
With regards to leadership, the patron noted
many of the female leaders in the school did spring up from members in their
Girl Power Club and more often than not those that were leaders tended to perform
better in other areas too or simply improved. During last year’s KCPE national
exams 5 of their girls scored above 300 marks out of the possible 500 and are
off to high school.
 |
Dr. Mwaka with the medical team during one of the
I Have a Ball Competitions she very well helped
to run |
The girls are currently about 46 in number for this term. Their main sport is Volley Ball
and Net Ball. They meet on Wednesdays between 3:00-4:30 pm and would love to
have us more in their sessions . They would as well like to have extended
sessions to Saturday afternoons when possible. The girl’s club information is
kept by the girls in a file by the girls’ voted in secretary.
 |
| Jayoung with the Nazarene Girls in session |
One of the other positive impact with regards
to school attendance and general behaviour change is one story of one of the
girl power members Ann (not her whole
name though) who was a known school
truant , sneaked from school, from her parents home and felt she was big enough
to fend for herself even though still in primary. Her parents tried to help her
but still was a challenge and when girl power came along she was involved in
the ‘’I have a Ball’’ theme and challenge when she met
Jayoung, Dr. Mwaka and other girls from Girl Power she then gradually gained
interest in school and the club activity.
At first it looked as though out of
curiosity and soon became more frequent in school and finally returned home.
She is now in high school and in from two!!!
Olympic High School
Olympic High School located at Kibera Olympic
area is a mixed both day and boarding however it only accommodates the girls
that play football in their boarding facilities. These girls come from all over
Kenya and sometimes from other similar programmes like Girl Power and when they
join, they get better equipped such that by the time they go back they have
double value.
The girls are active footballers and train
very well supported by their two male coaches Coach Anthony and Coach Orao
Joesph as well as their principal with the school’s deputy (female) acting as
their Patron.
Out of the
entire football team 70% form the Girl Power Club although more often than not
there is a rotation of the girls such that during their school term atleast of
them does interact with girl power.
The girls
meet on their own and have their own custom made sessions to suit their time
and nature of activities and this is often at night and when attending
competitions away they try to meet up before and after game to talk about
things that matter to them. Their meetings days are usually Mondays however its
sometimes hard to include our project assistants for sessions apart from sports
as by the time its session time the girls are training hence can only meet at
night after preps. The girls train in the morning and evening. At 5 am they jog
all the way to railways and back before they go for breakfast, preps and class.
 |
| Evening Training session |
On the
brighter side, the patron noted the girls seem to need lesser supervision now.
Although they always participate in sports they see more girls willing be
involved in competition not just because they belong to the football team but
because they enjoying it. They joined us in 2012 they have since participated in
our sisterhood world cup competition and won both times. Recently , they participated
in the school games competition and have moved through the Langata District to
Nairobi County, Metropolitan level , Nationals and finally representing
 |
The Team that played in Rwanda with their school principal
and deputy |
Kenya
in East Africa where they fell third place. The team has also been to Nigeria
for football and also registered a number of girls join to form the National
under 18 Girls team with one Catherine Osiche also a member of Girl Power heading
as the girl’ s national team Harambee
Stars captain. Among others who have been through Girl Power is Fathime Omar
who will soon be going to Germany for further training in football. She is one
of the girls from coast and a beneficiaries of two sister programmes. When in
Nairobi she joins Girl Power and is trained with us and when in Coast she is
with MTG Kilifi and we all proud of her.
One of our
concerns with girls who play sports at is often that they do not have a place
to change when they go out. For Olympic High school they encourage the girls to
dress in their sports wear underneath their uniforms or simply come readily
dressed. When they need room the only place they have is the school bus in most
cases.
Recommendation
, Announcements and A.O.B
1.
All new Girl Power Club schools
without Goal Champions will have the opportunity to have some of their girls
trained as Goal Champions in the next training in April 2014.
2.
Patrons present at the meeting
with no balls received two balls each immediately to aid their sports in
school for the girls.
3.
Patrons who know any of their
girls that have completed school and are looking for something to do and interested
in being fitness instructors should let us know by mid April so that they may
join training in May learn and get something
to do in the process as we try to provide a ‘’safety net’’ for the girls that
come off our programmes. After school and graduation in the programme.
4.
Girl Power is opening up in Siaya
County, Sigomere Ward. Girl Power Club Staff shall spend a week in Siaya county and
set up as get familiar with the new area. This will be the first opening out of
Nairobi
 |
From right to left team to Siaya- Dr. Liz Odera, Paullete Akinyi, Maria Okongó
, Mary Florence, Gwen Aketch and Jayoung Naphtalie Margaret |
5.
The patrons did express of their enthusiasm
in the new venture and very much encouraged it by sharing some of their
experiences in those areas, giving their pleas as well as adding additional
valuable information we should know that face many of the girls in Siaya County
especially girls that have access to the lake sides and fishing sights. School
drop out, early marriages pregnancies, gigers among other health threats, child
prostitution and more where the girls are forced into sex to get some basic
things.
Conclusion
At
the end of meeting the patrons did collect their girls certificate of participation
in the Vital Voices Mentoring Walk , have a cup of tea, receive two balls each
per school and some transport
compensation .
