The focus of empowerment has over time been intertwined with gender, forgetting that it is just as important to start it in the very early stages of one’s life. Empowerment comes in a number of ways, but with the main purpose of leaving something or someone better than it was in the beginning.
Through a baseline study conducted by 3Es Experience, it was noted that pupils studying in rural schools lacked empowerment which led them to have challenges such as:
- Low literacy/ reading culture caused by the lack of resources and motivation towards reading.
- Lack of imagination and creative thinking having only been exposed to the life around them.
- Lack of knowledge on career opportunities available to them in future. Their knowledge is also limited to the activities they see around them such as riding boda-bodas, maasai warrior, small-scale farming and the likes, which may not encourage a student to be ambitious or hardworking in life.
A. Student Empowerment.
Having identified the above challenges, 3Es Experience has put its focus not only on the students, but also in the general community with an effort to improve the economic status of the region. The organization has planned to improve the lives and quality of education of students through the school empowerment programs that include:
(I) The African Child Book Campaign (ACBC)
This project was started with the aim of creating a reading culture among students through the issuing of story books and the necessary resources to aid their learning needs. Through this project, students write book reports and use the new vocabulary learned in their academic writing. The storybooks also help to increase their creativity since each pupil is given a different book and can switch with fellow classmates in order to interact with as many stories as possible in a year.
(II) The Mentorship Program.
The purpose of this program is to equip students with non academic skills that are essential to their personal growth and provide an additional advantage in learning while simultaneously exposing them to careers available for them after school through Career Talks given by skilled personnel in the organization and organized trips to see some of these careers in action.
Through this program, pupils are able to acquire skills such as:
- Communication skills.
- Leadership skills.
- Critical thinking.
- Problem solving.
- Self awareness.
- Teamwork and time management.
- Career planning and development.