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More Information About this Project
Project Needs and Beneficiaries
Only 1% of girls in the Kibera slum of Nairobi, Kenya have access to an all-girl, development program. Young women in the slum aged 15-24 are contracting HIV at a rate 5 times that of their male counterparts. The Binti Pamoja Center creates a safe space for adolescent girls to discuss reproductive health issues and to fight gender-based violence and discrimination. The Center also offers educational scholarships for secondary school, financial literacy training, and peer education training.
Activities
If we provide scholarships, financial literacy, HIV/AIDS training, leadership skills, as well as a physical, safe space for girls and young women in the Kibera slum, we can help these women lead healthy lives and become agents of social change.
Funding Information
Total Funding Received to Date: $5,313
Remaining Goal to be Funded: $19,687
Total Funding Goal: $25,000
Additional Documentation
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
Resources
Why this Project is Important
Potential Long Term Impact
The Binti Pamoja Center will provide 100 adolescent girls and young women with a safe space to discuss and tackle gender-based violence and discrimination, supporting them to make educated choices, lead healthy lives, and become community leaders.
Project Message
You start seeing projects like CFK expand, and over time you see more pathways out of Kibera. More people are able to grow businesses. More young people are able to take advantage of education.
- Barack Obama, US Senator & Democratic Presidential Candidate
Who is Running This Project
Contact
Emily Reynolds Pierce,
VP Development
FedEx Global Education Center, Third Floor
301 Pittsboro St, Campus Box 5145
Chapel Hill, NC 27599
United States
330-904-4859
Email:
Project Sponsor
GlobalGiving
Organization
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Carolina for Kibera, Inc.
FedEx Global Education Center
UNC-Chapel Hill Campus Box 5145
Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-5145
United States
919-843-6842
http://cfk.unc.edu |
Learn more about Carolina for Kibera, Inc. and the project team.
Organization's Current Projects on GlobalGiving
When this Project was Updated
Last Updated
This project was last updated on January 04, 2008.
Date Added to GlobalGiving
This project was added to the GlobalGiving project catalog on August 01, 2007.
Latest Update from the Field
Violence in Kibera and Kenya - Update from CFK
By Rye Barcott, President - Kimberly Page, Chair, Board of Directors, January 04, 2008 06:09 PM
Friends and colleagues,
Many of you have called or e-mailed asking for information and sending your thoughts and prayers to the Carolina for Kibera (CFK) staff and volunteers who are on the ground in the Kibera slum of Nairobi, Kenya. Thank you for your solidarity and support.
To our knowledge CFK staff and volunteers have suffered only one relatively minor injury as a result of the recent ethnic violence. However, large numbers of volunteers of all ages have had their houses burned and looted. There are no Americans volunteering with CFK at the moment on the ground in Kibera. CFK has kept its office and clinic closed since the election. However, today we began a short-term feeding program out of our youth center.
The violence stems from the December 27 presidential election in Kenya. At first, the election seemed to be peaceful and well orchestrated. It appeared as though the main opposition candidate, Raila Odinga, had a significant lead in the early polls. The violence began after President Kibaki was prematurely declared the winner in a small, hasty ceremony at his Presidential estate. It is unclear whether or not Kibaki won the election, but elections monitors (including the Kenyan head of the Kenyan Electoral Commission) have publicly called the election results illegitimate.
Although ethnic divisiveness is no stranger to Kenyan politics, no one anticipated the level of violence that has engulfed Kibera and much of Kenya. The situation on the ground is deteriorating rapidly as each day passes. Stores in Nairobi are looted and people, particularly the poor, are running out of food. Food prices are soaring. Large swaths of Kibera are burned to the ground. Criminal opportunists have joined the fray and there are incidents of wanton violence. Yesterday we received reports that a group of community members repelled a gang of thugs from looting and burning our youth center.
It should be noted, however, that those perpetrating the violence in Kibera number perhaps in the hundreds. Over 700,000 people, half of whom are under the age of 15, reside in the slum. Nevertheless, the level of hatred and divisiveness throughout Kenya today is unprecedented. People are afraid, and those with the means are fleeing from Kibera and other multi-ethnic communities racked by violence. Each day of violence besets the next and further solidifies more ethnic enmity.
The violence must stop now. Efforts to unite Odinga and Kibaki and encourage these leaders to lead and bring a halt to the violence have thus far been futile. None of these leaders have been on the ground in Kibera since the violence began.
In the face of this current tragedy, we must take stock of where we are as an organization. Some commentators suggest that these events signify a hopelessness of development and progress in Kenya. We who have labored on the ground with our brothers and sisters in Kibera see it much differently. We initially started CFK as a small soccer program with a hundred youths from every village and every ethnic group in Kibera. A key goal was to help promote ethnic cooperation and support the education of remarkable young leaders living in some of the most austere conditions imaginable. The violence reminds us that development depends on good governance and security. But our charge is still very clear, and even more important in light of the current bloodletting. CFK staff and volunteers are the forces and voices of positive change that will help create and sustain an equitable and peaceful society.
We will post updates about new developments to our website. If you are interested in learning more, below is a powerful UN article that features CFK and Binti Pamoja member Fatuma Roba. Her two-minute radio interview is particularly powerful. Also included is a link to a front-page article about CFK and Kibera from the Raleigh News and Observer and an insightful op-ed in the Financial Times from long-time CFK supporter and dear friend Michael Holman. Below is a graphic video of the violence in Kibera from CNN.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2008/01/03/mckenzie.lok.kenya.protestor.standoff.cnn?iref=videosearch
Please keep our brave leaders and volunteers on the ground in your thoughts and prayers in the days ahead. It is likely to get worse before it gets better. If you are so inclined, we could as always use your financial support.
Tumeshukuru (Gratefully),
Rye Barcott
President and Founder
Kimberly Chapman Page
Chair, Board of Directors
You can make a donation online through GlobalGiving to support CFK or learn more at: http://cfk.unc.edu
Links:
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Fighting Discrimination against Girls in Kibera
21.3% funded ($5,313)
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