Our Programs

Literacy for Women in Africa

BSK has an adult literacy program dubbed literacy for women in Africa. This program mainly targets a group of women of child-bearing age (15 years and above) who have not had the opportunity to learn to read and write.

BSK has an adult literacy program dubbed literacy for women in Africa. This program mainly targets a group of women of child-bearing age (15 years and above) who have not had the opportunity to learn to read and write.
Other persons targeted by the programme include men, young girls, and elderly women. This could also include women who have already had the opportunity to learn to read ‘second chance.’

Turkana County has low literacy levels of 20% considering that it has a population of 926,976 speakers of the language. Non-literates account for 741,580.

The Literacy for Women in Africa programme is currently being implemented in the County with 20 active adult literacy classes spread across Loima, Turkana Central, Turkana North, and Turkana South sub-counties. The program has grown tremendously since 2018 when it began with 10 pilot classes. So far, 1920 learners have been trained with 65% of them being women.

The reason why the program majorly focuses on women is that in the marginalized communities women or girls are denied a chance to go to school, as priority is given to men. Women are seen as people who carry out house chores, bear children, go through practices e.g. female genital mutilation (FGM) and early marriages thus denying them a chance to access education or any form of schooling.

The uniqueness of this program is that it is a non-formal mother tongue-based education meant to impact adult learners with basic reading and writing skills. The main goal of the program is to enable the marginalized communities to read the Word of God in their heart language and be transformed by it.

BSK partners with the Church to implement this programme. The Churches provide venues that are used as classes, they identify passionate people who are trained as teachers, and they assist in monitoring. The Directorate of Adult and Continuing Education office has also come in handy in helping learners to transition to formal schooling to learn other subjects.

other Programs & projects

Open the Book & Programme For Pastoral Instruction PPI

Braille Bible Distribution to the VIP’s Programme

Faith Comes By Hearing (FCBH)

Mwimbi Bible Translation

Young Samaritans Programme

Literacy for Women in Africa

Bibles Eagles Club

African Biblical Leadership Initiative (abli)

Marginalized Children

 

Gikuyu Study Bible Project

Banyala Bible Translation Project

Teso Bible translation project

 

Supporting Rescued Girls

Written by Joy Balusi

October 2, 2020

Esther is one of many young Maasai girls in Kenya “rescued” from an early marriage. Her story portrays the struggle between conservative beliefs and the individual rights of young girls in the Maasai community to education.

The Narok Peace association, through the leadership of Joshua ole Kaputah, has played a big role in rescuing Maasai girls from early marriages and female genital mutilation practices. The girls are then taken to Light of Life children’s center in Kajiado, a place they call home. Most of these girls do not have the opportunity to go to school as their culture does not value education especially for girls. They rely on well-wishers to support them with food, toiletries, school fees, and other psychological needs including guidance and counselling sessions so that they can grow holistically.

Bible Society of Kenya and A Hand of Friendship partnered with Narok Peace association to give food, writing materials, sanitary towels, and Bibles to the girls at the center on October 1st, 2020. The girls were overjoyed at the love and kindness they had received from the three organizations. The colourful event was full of singing and dancing of Maasai gospel songs which saw the guests join in the fun.

The founder of Light of Life Children’s Centre Mrs. Eva Nakola thanked all the partners for their generosity to the girls. She noted that she was herself a rescued girl, which resulted in her passion to support Maasai girls who were facing the same challenge so that they could get an education and better their lives. She started the center with one girl and it later grew to 210 girls since its inception four years ago. The girls have progressed up to University level and others are working. Currently, there are 31 girls, the youngest being nine years old.

The General Secretary Mrs. Elizabeth Muriuki lauded Eva for the noble work she is doing to support the girls. She encouraged the girls to know that they are special before God and they have a bright future ahead. She talked about the Bible Society of Kenya programmes noting that they are aimed at transforming people’s lives holistically adding that the Bible gives people direction in life.

Miss Susan Ndiang’ui, a Programme Coordinator at Bible Society of Kenya gave a motivational talk to the girls where she reminded them that they are important to God and their future is in God’s hands. She urged them to use their talents, spiritual gifts, experiences, personalities, and skills to make an impact as God uses what we have, to make a difference.

The girls were exceptionally happy to receive Bibles as this would help them grow spiritually.

Here are some testimonies they shared

“I am grateful for this Bible. I am in expecting to do my final exams and this Bible will help me so much in my revision. My favorite scripture is Psalms 37:1-7.” Everlyne Peyiai-Class 8

“I am happy to receive a Bible today. The past will not control my future. I have the weapon and it will help me be an example to my community.” Blessing Tarayai-Form 1

 

You May Also Like…

God’s Unfailing Love

God’s Unfailing Love

"We love because he first loved us." - 1 John 4:19 This simple yet profound verse sums up God's relationship with...

Nurturing a Bible Reading Culture

Nurturing a Bible Reading Culture

In a world of uncertainty and chaos, the Bible stands as a beacon of light and guidance. Its timeless truths offer...

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *