About

Kakenya’s Dream is a nonprofit organization operating a range of holistic education, health, and leadership programs to empower girls and transform communities across rural Kenya. Our wraparound programs are designed to nurture and support the whole girl and all of her unique needs from childhood to adulthood, because we believe an educated and well-supported girl has the ability to transform her family, community, and the world at large.

Holistic Education

Our education programs include the Kakenya Centers for Excellence (KCE I and II), which are full-support girls’ boarding schools that provide high-quality education to the most vulnerable girls in rural Kenya. When our students graduate from our boarding schools, they enter our Network for Excellence program, which supports our KCE I and II graduates as they make the critical transition to secondary school (high school) and tertiary education (college/university), a time when most girls in our community experience increasing pressure to get married and drop out of school. Through the Network for Excellence, we provide college and career guidance, scholarships and financial aid, tutoring, and social support so that our girls are set up for success in adulthood.

Health and Human Rights

With extremely limited healthcare resources and education in our region, most community members know little about their bodies or rights. This lack of sexual health and rights-based education leads to increased rates of female genital mutilation (FGM), child marriage, unplanned teenage pregnancy, and cyclical intergenerational poverty. To combat these problems, we equip our students and boys and girls in partner schools across southwestern Kenya with comprehensive sex education, information about the dangers of FGM and child marriage, knowledge of their legal rights, and life skills training through our Health and Leadership Training program.

To further meet our region’s healthcare needs, we are building the community’s first and only youth-friendly health and wellness clinic! Once operational (end of 2023), the clinic will provide basic healthcare, mental health support and counseling, stigma-free sexual and reproductive care, and an emergency hotline for reporting incidences of violence.