Inspired by mum’s early death, she now empowers young girls

“When I started menstruating, I did not know how to use a sanitary towel. In fact, I couldn’t afford one. I used a tissue paper,” says Yvonne Ogolla as she remembers growing up at a time when discussing sexual reproductive health matters with parents was considered taboo.

Her disjointed family added to her woes. She was constantly forced to witness violence at home as her father beat her mother almost daily, leaving her with bruises and injuries. Many times, she would  run into the safe arms of her grandmother in their village in Koru to escape the violence.

She learnt to take care of herself at a very tender age, as she was living with her grandmother throughout primary school. In 2011, her dream of joining university was cut short when her father, who was then working with Kenya Railways, was retrenched. This forced their family to relocate to the village.

“With my college dream shattered, I resorted to doing menial jobs to survive,’” she recounts.

Yvonne’s father sunk into depression, and became an alcoholic. Her mother, who was also battling cervical cancer, breathed her last two years later.

"I took up the responsibility of raising my five siblings while earning a salary of Sh8,000 per month from my job as a cyber café attendant,” she recalls.

 In hindsight, Yvonne now appreciates these challenges and believes that they prepared her for bigger tasks in life.

In 2016, she was among a group of young women who participated in the Dream Girls Project, an initiative supported by the US government which sought to end teenage pregnancy and reduce the number of new HIV infections.

The programme aimed to empower adolescent girls and young women by training them in financial literacy so they could develop a culture of saving, as well as entrepreneurship skills to enable them start and run small enterprises.

She was a volunteer in the programme, and worked as an assistant trainer. With focus and determination, lady luck finally smiled upon her in 2017 when the project partly sponsored her to study social work and community development at Kisumu Polytechnic.

There, she was elected Vice Chairperson of the students governing council.

The role presented her with the opportunity to get training on gender mainstreaming, and the pay she got enabled her pay part of her school fees.

On the advice and encouragement from her mentors at Dream project, she started her own group, Dream Girls Youth Group based in Nyalenda, Kisumu County.

She borrowed a lot from the parent programme, but her goal was to empower young women, with focus on three main pillars: economic, governance and sexual reproductive health.

“Dream is an abbreviation that stands for Determined, Empowered, AIDs-free, Mentored, Safe girls and young women, and is a group of young women aged between 18 and 35,” she says of the group that has been in existence for the last six years. 

“Last year alone, we shared nearly Sh500,000 among our 23 members who religiously saved it for future use. We now have 33 members under the scheme, “she proudly says.

The group, she says, advances loans to members so that they can start or boost their business. The aim is to empower teenage mothers and young women, and to shield them from gender-based violence.

“We also point to them scholarship opportunities in vocational institutions so that those who are not into business can gain skills that can help them find employment,” she says.

The group also conducts community outreach activities to every month.

Yvonne believes that her mother developed and died from cervical cancer due to lack of knowledge on proper menstrual hygiene. This is what inspires her to spread awareness on sexual reproductive health.

 “A girl or woman must know her reproductive health rights so that she can make informed choices about her body, and take care of herself,” says the Chairperson and Head of Programmes at Dreams Girls Youth Group.

Apart from distributing sanitary pads to needy girls, the team conducts educational forums on various reproductive health topics such as menstrual hygiene, HIV prevention, family planning and contraceptives and gender-based violence.

They also offer referrals and linkages to facilities that offer services on reproductive health.

The team continuously trains their members on their role in governance and budget issues so that they can hold their leaders accountable.

Her turnaround began in 2021 when she was among the 10 women accepted by the World Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) young women leadership programme.

“The three-month rigorous programme took us through training to gain knowledge and practical experience on leadership, advocacy, community outreach, strategic communication, good governance and accountability,” she says.

“Initially, I didn’t know how to go about running and managing my programme, but the opportunity to be in the 2021 cohort helped me identify my areas of strengths and weakness,” she says.

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