By Okong’o Oduya
Cecilia Nangina Girls High School Principal Mrs.Phenora Buyengo from Busia County,Western Kenya is dedicated to making a difference in the life of the girl child.
According to her, the community has to realize the importance of taking care of the needs of a girl child by taking them to school as well as respecting her rights as a girl. She notes that girls are emerging heroes in various aspects of life and this is as a result of the support from the society.
The up keep of a baby girl mostly has been left to mothers, a move she views should not be the case. She says as a family both parents should have a role to play in upbringing of the girl child. “we believe it is upon mothers to talk to girls. This is where we go wrong it is our responsibility as parents to take care of our girl child. We are taking it wrong we all have a task to play as both parents in bringing up these children,” she noted.
She further noted that raising girl child on spiritual environment is vital since it helps in preparing them for a better future. According to her as principal of the girl school she provide conducive environment for girls to practice Christianity as needed by the catholic schools regulations.
Talents are also other aspects of life parents don’t consider much when talking of bringing up their girl child. She says parents needs to identify the talents of their children and help them nurture them for their prosperity in life. She says there is need to motivate them and tell them what they need to know adding that by hiding any information from them makes them more vulnerable especially when talking of sex related issues.
Girls have several needs in life and in most cases they find themselves at cross road when they are looking for these needs. Some end up giving their bodies to get what they need and this is where we parents have to come in and provide them with these needs to avoid a situation where they are lured into small gifts in exchange of sex leading to early pregnancies.
As a way of discouraging girls from unnecessary relationships girls are advised not to touch what they can’t afford. Girls are urged to wait patiently until the right time before they can engage in any act of sex. She noted that despite having small cases of boy girl relationship amongst the girls, Buyengo said through peer counseling and guiding the students manage to live a life free from pregnancies.
“In our case we have peer counselors. They talk to each other in what they call ‘Mchongoano’ through these discussions they talk about what to do and when to do it. And our teachers have hands on this issue to make sure girls don’t deviate from what is needed for them to do,” she explained.
Despite all she noted that their success is laid on foundation of spiritual morals. Going to church every day religious leaders speaking to students on a daily basis this help them know what is needed for them to do. For candidate the principal noted that they organize workshops on motivational talks and mentorships to help them make it well in national exams.
With many cases of students going on rampage destroying properties worth millions of money in Kenyan secondary schools, the principal said there is a need for a dialogue between the students and the school management to provide room to iron out problems and avert the frequent strikes.
Mrs Buyengo who initiated a girl child kitty to help the most vulnerable and needy students in her school by buying them sanitary towels and other necessities the girls want, attributes the calmness and success of her school to frequent talks to students to identify where the loop hole is, seal it before it goes out of hands.
“We must have open dialogue. We must open these students be close to them and read the situation as early as possible.it is also important to empower prefect body. They sleep, eat and leave with these students and to me it is important we use them to act as spy to leak the information from students to school management to act on them before the real situation strikes,” she said
Mrs. Buyengo noted that the school invites specialist on many occasions to guide and counsel to advice the girls on how to avoid tempting situations that may lead them to unwanted sex and early pregnancies.
However the principal noted that with overwhelming student population there is a need to expand infrastructure to accommodate the ever increasing number of students. As the school celebrates fifty years since the school was established dammed as ‘golden jubilee day’, Mrs. Buyengo noted that this will bring together all the stakeholders in within the county and the alumni who will help raise money to increase the infrastructures.
She said some of the challenges affecting the school such as water shortage, few classrooms and books have been addressed. She further said since they are celebrating 50 years of jubilee since the school was started, they plan to raise money to help construct a big dining hall that will accommodate more than 1300 students from the current one that has capacity of 150 students constructed by the missionaries fifty years ago.
