Building Sustainable Communities through Education

In an already weakened economy and social systems due to Covid-19, pandemic, communities are looking at ways to reassure themselves of a future. Covid pandemic has yet caused additional challenges to already existing problems of gender inequality, marginalization, lack of quality accessible and affordable education among many problems. Women and girls are painfully hit by the pandemic as their education, which was facing the threat of inequality and gender bias remain a jigsaw puzzle.. Gone are the days where women just stay at home to nurse children and do house chores. Women now need to come on board and voice their views and change the world. Education has been proven to be a tool of empowerment, improves life chances of millions of marginalized girls. To overcome the barriers of gender inequality, retrogressive harmful cultural practices like FGM and early forced marriages and the odd perception that women cannot work, education need to be availed to them.

A lack of education, as schools in Kajiado are few and far apart, and due to Covid pandemic, resources and teacher capacity has become a challenge. Access to quality  education is a challenge to the Maasai young women and girls who are already battling other challenges.

In my community, Kajiado County, about 200, 000 Maasai women are still stuck to the socio-cultural practices without an education. 20,000 young women and girls dropped out of school and got married die to the Covid pandemic. 100, 000 women have no college education. In every 10 women,5 women missed school, 3 dropped out of school and 1 has no college education. And I ask, is this the kind of the world we are creating leaving women behind? A community where more than 200,000 women are illiterate is a global threat. 52 Million in Sub-Saharan Africa are illiterate and 16 Million at risk of missing school.

The solution offers an opportunity to access affordable, quality, modern, market place relevant  education to the Maasai women and girls to help them gain skills relevant to earn an income. My solution focuses on using easy to charge tablets to help women and girls out of school to still continue with education using the tablets. The tablets will be loaded with education content, curriculum and can be used offline without the need for internet connection. At our organization, we have been using Earth Ranger application to collect information on community livelihoods, wildlife tracks, human wildlife conflict incidences and a reporting tool. The application has been easy to use even by those who have not good education. It also helps in connecting different people collecting and transmitting information from different places. The tablets therefore will be used throughout the pastoralist Maasai community, and every child out of school can be pooled together as they herd/graze their livestock and given a chance to get an education.
The solution also focuses on mentoring more primary and secondary schools on digital literacy, women and girls to nurture their careers to avoid the trap of community cultural barriers.  Learning and training to use advanced technology like smart tablets, to help women compete in an already aggressive world. The solution mentors young women on how to benefit from technology, look for opportunities and earn an income from what they learn.

 My solution targets more than 200 000 girls who are at risk of missing an education. It targets their families, and the community of Kajiado County in Kenya. The solution targets to challenge the Maasai culture which continues to place high preference on males, disadvantaging women and girls’ access to education. Women already face the challenge of accessing primary and secondary education; it is an almost impossible occurrence for them to access tertiary education. The Maasai girls and women are faced with a myriad of barriers that stand in their way to access education. In Kajiado, only 2 percent of women attend college/university, only 1.4 percent completed college. Every year of school, 16,000 girls drop out of primary school, 6,000 drop out of secondary school, 3 percent join college and 1 percent drops on the way. Through the college I started, I mentor students on their career choices. With the efforts, 11 girls are placed in different colleges and 2 are in university. Education keeps them in school than choosing early marriage.  It will empower them to seek opportunities, earn a living, improve their families, and contribute actively in their society. Educated women will even have healthier and smaller families.

My solution is innovative because of the element of tech-integrated education. What makes it the most innovative is the inclusive, equity and outreach aspect of the marginalized Maasai girls and young women. It is so unique in the way that it seeks to help though who may never get an opportunity a chance to learn.
In 2017, before my college was ready to offer training, I volunteered in a teachers college located in Makueni County, a neighboring county. Since there was no college in my community, all the young people went to that college, 400 miles away from Kajiado. Learning and training never used technology. They used a blackboard, no computers, assessment of learners was done manually, most of the tutors were incompetent technologically, and women were very few. The learning environment was not friendly to girls and young women encouraging them to drop out of school. 
In another early childhood teachers training college started in one of the towns in Kajiado (though now closed) could not offer accredited and market-relevant courses. No technology was used. In general, a majority of colleges in Kenya do not integrate technology in their training. A majority of teachers are computer illiterate. I hate to see a teacher teaching using the same old methodology without any technology use. 
My solution targets a large number of women in the community as the principal priority. It targets to use technology in all its services from admission, training and product development. I want to see a woman using technology to brand her baking services; that is efficient. The solution aims to help women manage the changing male dominated world using technology.

I want to address cultural barriers that have held the pastoralist communities hostage and aback. For many years, pastoralist culture remained the strongest across the globe. However much the heritage is so beautiful, there are some challenges that arise due to changes that are happening today like economic, climate and social changes. I am applying for Solve to be able to bring solutions that can help the pastoralist community bridge the unequal education gap for their economic growth.

I believe, being an educator, educator plays a bigger role in spurring the economic breakthrough of communities. My solutions seeks to address economic, cultural and technical barriers in terms of human capital deficit 

My solution is innovative because of the element of tech-integrated education. What makes it the most innovative is the inclusive, equity and outreach aspect of the marginalized Maasai girls and young women. It is so unique in the way that it seeks to help though who may never get an opportunity a chance to learn.

I expect this solution to change the market completely as it will accord young women and girls an opportunity to fairly compete in a very competitive world. It will improve their confidence as they will be having an education to be able to make choices about their careers and social lives.

In 2017, before my college was ready to offer training, I volunteered in a teachers college located in Makueni County, a neighboring county. Since there was no college in my community, all the young people went to that college, 400 miles away from Kajiado. Learning and training never used technology. They used a blackboard, no computers, assessment of learners was done manually, most of the tutors were incompetent technologically, and women were very few. The learning environment was not friendly to girls and young women encouraging them to drop out of school. 
In another early childhood teachers training college started in one of the towns in Kajiado (though now closed) could not offer accredited and market-relevant courses. No technology was used. In general, a majority of colleges in Kenya do not integrate technology in their training. A majority of teachers are computer illiterate. I hate to see a teacher teaching using the same old methodology without any technology use. 
My solution targets a large number of women in the community as the principal priority. It targets to use technology in all its services from admission, training and product development. I want to see a woman using technology to brand her baking services; that is efficient. The solution aims to help women manage the changing male dominated world using technology.

I intend to change individuals in the community, their families and the community. To achieve this, I plan to source funding from well wishers, possible potential donors and local government to reach over 500 individuals. That will translate to 500 families, and about 50000 people. I want to see more women next year looking for an opportunity to get a skill or training, that change of attitude is through the mentorship program in schools. With the support of community leaders, the number of school girls dropping on monthly basis is dropping compared to the past. I aim to collaborate with them more, to see that each family considers taking one girl to college. 
Some sponsors and the Constituency Development Fund have already expressed interest to support more girls through bursaries and scholarship to pursue commercial courses if they complete their basic education. I therefore intend to mentor more girls and youth to continue with their education through the solution and see that they pursue careers  in colleges adding hence more change for the girls and young women in the community. The target is to reach 100 girls and young women on bursaries and scholarship. Once this happens, the solution will recommend them to potential employers, institutions that can support women enterprises and any other available opportunities through an on-campus and off-campus mentorship.
I also plan to partner with companies like Google, IBM, Safaricom in Kenya, Strathmore University (offered to train the students and teachers on technology development and business skills), National Industrial and Training Institute for exchange programs, resources allocation and employment/internship consideration. In five years, 7000 women to be well placed

Changing communities, especially using education is a process. Some of the indicators I use are: By the end of every year, at least 30% of families to have children transiting to another level of education. 

That by the end of five years, about 10,000 girls should join tertiary institutions to pursue STEM courses.

After 5 years, 50000 people should be able to get opportunities related to education.

At least every month, 500 children are reported to have mastered expected content.

100 teachers to have been trained on digital literacy by the end of one year.

Access to quality, modern, affordable and market place relevant learning and training for girls and young women are not only important but an urgent need in Kajiado. Cutting edge technology integrated training will jump-start the potentials of over 200,000 women whose potentials have been ignored from many decades.
Technology makes learning enjoyable and interactive. It stimulates interest in learning as well as creativity. In Kajiado, this is a case of cultural misgivings, school drop-out due to unsafe and unwelcoming learning environments, too much peer influence to stick to traditions and culture, male dominance and the acute belief that women have no value. To solve this problem, the solution aims to use interactive technology.  I believe learning can best be enjoyable if technology is made available.
According to the SATIPS (Society for Support And Training In Prep. Schools) Magazine, publishing the Case Study about The Banda's e-learning programme in their May 2015 issue (https://www.bandaschool.com/us... ) research on Banda School in Nairobi Kenya; technology has proved to change the way learning and teaching becomes successful. To impact on the lives of the more than 200,000 women, the solution aims to leverage on such technology.
The solution aims at improving the social and economic livelihoods of the girls and young women in the community through quality learning and training. Help them gain a skill and use it to power their lives. At the end of the learning and training, they can start their own enterprises, or get formal employment. They will influence their families and the community stands to develop economically. The process or learning and training will also improve their confidence, clarity and decision making skills to solve challenges in the community.
According to the CEO and Founder of Soronko Academy, Ghana, Regina Honu confirms that technology bridges many gaps and essential in empowering women. It gives them confidence, can earn a living, and more, improve the world. My solution will impact the girls and young women in my community, country and the world if scaled. Technology integrated training can change the future of the community through creation of a women workforce.

My solution is a process that is already in place. It is a program to give Maasai girls and young women an opportunity to access college education affordably and within the community. The opportunity is community centered to help women meet the needs of the current society. They will be trained based on technology and access to Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) any time. The women will also use the skills to solve some of the pressing challenges facing their families,the community as they compete globally and succeeding. 
The process will use the internet of things (IoT) to offer further learning opportunities to the Maasai girls and young women. The internet of things, I believe, will give the women an opportunity to connect to the world, learn the global trends on development, try new opportunities and improve their lives. The aim is to make the girls and women be locally but globally learning.
Every student will also be able to access an internet connected computer, can easily study, try to develop a product and share with the tutors through the VLE technology. This will encourage them to be innovative, active and willing to learn taking away limiting barriers to learning and training. With a network connecting them to the world, the Masai women will now see the need to stay in school, join the workforce than getting married without a skill. Imagine booking online a service from a Maasai woman ran saloon, and get the service, how would you feel? 

Our senior management team is made of of 6 women and 10 men. 

We are from diverse ethnic backgrounds. 

We undertake in service training often to help improve the skills of our team members.  We always encouraged freedom, innovative mess and a conducive environment for sharing new ideas or challenging odd ideas. 

Part of our solution tried to link the community to their natural resources na cultural diversity.

And in one of the products, pastoral and conservation education leadership, we try to help youth develop an understanding of their BioCultural diversity using education.

Junior Conservation Leadership Programme:
The JCPLP has two main components which are well established in a small area of the
SORALO landscape (Shompole and Olkiramatian). The first is a custom-designed set of
lessons aimed initially at the members of the local wildlife clubs within each school. They are
designed to increase knowledge around mammals, birds, plants, pastoralism, culture and the
future. They are designed to be interactive and fun, and patron-led. The pilot year was 2019
which went well, and then of course due to COVID we were unable to continue into 2020. We
are rolling out the next phase starting in August this year. The second component involves
bringing school children from the local schools to our field centre, Lale'enok, in Olkiramtian
for a weekend of activities which include learning about all the research and conservation
work ongoing in the area, going on game drives, going on a baboon walk, and playing games
which reinforce aspects of conservation and culture.
The Alumni Conservation Leadership Course:
In 2019 we were approached by former members of the wildlife club of the local Secondary
school in Olkiramatian, to ask how they could continue to be a part of SORALO's work and
continue the engagements that had begun when they were still at school. Late in 2020 we
were able to trial a two day workshop where we invited young men and women alumni to
come to our Lale'enok Education Centre and engage in the first step of a conservation leadership course. They
shared ideas on common challenges and discussed solutions. The next step would be to
bring them together for some leadership training, which has been stalled by the various
waves of COVID.
Employment with SORALO:
At SORALO we believe that whether you have chosen to work as a community ranger, a
resource assessor (collecting data) or a conservation ambassador that by the nature of your work and the training support given, everyone becomes a conservation leader in their own. This makes education more attractive or incentiviced.

Currently we are having donations and grants from the Tusk Conservation, CZBG zoo, Zoological Society of London. We are seeking funds through donations and grants.

We will continue to write proposals seeking for funding to continue the solution.

Through a grant we vouched for, CZBG

-have supported

the running of our
Lale'enok Education
Centre for over 12
years. They are now
helping us to design
the layout and
content for the
improvement of the
centre as an
education and
training centre for communities especially after Covid pandemic proofed that new solutions need to be developed with $73,000

Smithsonian Institute 

-supported the
development of the
overall concept of our
Cultural Centre with $60,000 USD.