Breaking Gender Barriers - Mathare Foundation

Earlier this month, the photographer’s association of Kenya visited the Mathare Foundation located in one of the slums of Nairobi. The majority of the population, which is approximately 500,000 people, live in severe conditions and most of the young men and women find themselves in unfavorable circumstances where they lack basic human needs such as food, clean water, overall health and education.

Despite the poverty and daily challenges, the Mathare Foundation and the French Embassy aim to contribute to the development of the younger generation by offering educational support to girls and young women through the PISCCA project.

The Breaking Gender Barriers’ project is part of the educational program that intends to provide mentorship, give training and technical workshops in various fields of industry such as arts and culture, science and technology, sports, health and medicine.

While in Mathare, we witnessed the positive impact of the Mathare Foundation’s training programs and how it continues to improve the life of those young girls and women. Stacey Awino is one of them and is currently training to become a football referee. During our interview, she spoke about her passion and dedication, as well as her contribution as a team leader, which was remarkable at such a young age.

Breaking Gender Barriers is not only a call to end inequalities, but a movement that encourages and empowers young girls and women to become the next generation of leaders, teachers and more.