The county directorate of gender and youth affairs in collaboration with Nyanza Initiative for Girls’ Education and Empowerment (NIGEE) expressed commitment in empowering vulnerable girls and young mothers through donations of sanitary towels in Kisumu West Subcounty.
During the official opening of the event, the County Director of Gender and Youth Affairs Ms Adah Omedi led an open forum discussion with the girls and young women from the 5 wards including Southwest, Northwest, Kisumu North, Kisumu West and Central Kisumu wards to deliberate on the challenges faced by the female gender.
The discussions identified a number of challenges such as lack of economic empowerment, gender-based violence, lack of basic needs due to unemployment that leads to commercial sex and lack of parental skills. The young mothers also expressed fear of being discriminated, threats from the perpetrators and poverty as some of the reasons as to why rape cases were not being reported.
Speaking at the event, Ms Omedi encouraged the group to speak out against gender-based violence by reporting such cases to the paralegals within the community. The County director also urged young women to go for family planning to allow them to raise manageable families. Ms Omedi urged the girls to engage in economic activities by applying for loans to venture into small scale businesses.
The event was graced by the project manager NIGEE, Mr. Alex Ouma with the aim of empowering vulnerable girls and young mothers in the community. NIGEE is a non-governmental organization whose mission is to empower young mothers to be self-reliant through vocational training.
On behalf of the young mothers, Mrs. Millicent Awino Ochieng’ and Mrs. Mollesha Awour Owinga expressed gratitude for the guiding and counselling offered by the county government to empower young girls on their rights.
By Beatrice Akinyi
County Director of Gender and Youth Affairs issuing sanitary towels to the young mothers and girls in Kisumu West Subcounty ( Picture by David Wadulo)
County government of Kisumu has expressed its commitment in promoting education through a book donation exercise to ECD schools in Kisumu East and Central Sub – Counties.
The purchase of 25,000 exercise books and 7000 text books was influenced by the newly formulated education system of Competency Based Curriculum education (CBC) and aimed at promoting the system, increasing student enrolment and reducing the burden for parents in purchasing the new books, as the donation opt to support 8000 pupils across all ECDE centres.
In his remarks, the Deputy Governor Dr. Mathew Owili who was the chief guest highlighted the importance of the event as he encouraged the teachers to make more effort in pre primary learning education in order to build good educational foundation for the children in preparation for academic’s competition nationwide.
Dr. Owili applauded Governor Nyong’os efforts in promoting education and promised to offer material support to enhance the teachers’ successful delivery.
Speaking during the event, Dr. Ogone advised the teachers to renew their contracts upon expiry as he also promised to discuss their needs such as gratuity with the Public Service Board towards making learning in ECDE centres efficient.
The books will go along way to help teachers in ensuring success in CBC implementation, increase in enrolment and improved child performance. Parents will also be relieved off the burden of buying exercise and text books as a total of 70 public preschools benefited.
The event was attended by stakeholders in the County education sector including the Ag. Director for ECDE, Mrs. Margaret Apondi, ECDE sub county managers, the chair County Education Committee Hon. David Arao, together with the Kisumu Central sub county administrator Mr. Samson Jagero.
By Vello Wendo
Edited By Matilda
Deputy Governor issuing books towards ECD education to the Sub County ECD managers at Kasao social hall in Kisumu East Sub County. ( Picture by David Wadulo)
The County directorate of gender and youth in partnership with Plan International and Kisumu Medical Education Trust (KMET) Kenya held a 2-day workshop towards sensitization of the Sub- County administrators, ward administrators and the location administrative chiefs on the Sexual Gender Based Violence (SGBV) that was conducted on 25th and 26th of June, 2019 at Royal City hotel.
In the recent past sexual gender violence has been on the rise within Kisumu County, with Nyando sub-county being on the top list with most cases. It is with that background that the county gender technical committee organized a sensitization workshop targeting administrators who frequently interact with the public and receives the SGBV cases.
The workshop was officially opened by County Minister for Education Dr. John Obiero Ogone. In his remarks, Dr. Ogone acknowledged the support from the development partners and the state agencies in ensuring the success of the workshop. The minister noted that the workshop was timely and necessary in managing Gender based violence cases that are on the rise in the county and that meetings such as this was important in raising awareness against SGBV.
Speaking during the workshop Mr. Joel Okumu, the County gender officer stressed on the need to execute a survivor cantered approach in handling SGBV cases in order to take care of the survivors of the violation.
The objective of the workshop was to sensitize the county administrators to understand SGBV situational cases in Kisumu on collaborative approaches to prevention of SGBV, the budgetary costs of SGBV, strengthening referral pathways supporting survivors of SGBV, legal support to SGBV survivors and the supporting policy framework for SGBV.
The speakers unanimously agreed that the fight against SGBV can only be achieved through the multiagency approach, arguing that collaboration and integrative efforts approach is important in addressing the menace.
The workshop was spearheaded by was the County Directors, Gender and youth affairs Adah Omedi, Communication Atieno Otieno and officials from FIDA, NGEC, KMET, Plan International, State officers and JOOTRH
SGBV Sensitization workshop
The County Government of Kisumu in collaboration with the Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK) organized an ICTconsumer forum dubbed‘Kikao Kikuu’.on the 18th April, 2019 at the Jomo
Kenyatta Sports Ground.
The event, held under the theme “Efficient Service Delivery through Technology and Innovation”. brought together members of the public, IT experts from CAK and the county
government, service providers and consumer organizations. The authority sought to address issues from the public concerning communication.
Speaking at the event, the Director General of CAK, Mr. Francis Wangusi said the forum aimed at getting feedback from the public concerning how the authority and other service providers
were handling customer issues.
The Director General also urged the public to register for Huduma number which will help reduce cases of impersonation through phone calls and other media such as Facebook which
has seen Kenyans lose important information, money and other valuables to fraudsters.
While reading the Governors speech, the County Minister for Education and ICT, Dr. John Ogone said Kisumu is committed to improving service delivery through ICT.
“Kisumu County is privileged to have excellent access to communication services. We are leveraged on technology to enhance service delivery,” read part of the speech.
Areas which the County is committed in improving service delivery through ICT included revenue collection, resource systems such as SMS, creation of business and incubation
centres, institute measures to protect consumers and also address network outages, cyber security, data protection among others.
The event began on 15th with road shows across the County. Members were treated to entertainments and informative sessions which included active public participation.. Experts gave response to questions from the public while those who answered questions correctly walked away with lots of prizes from the Communications Authority and the County
Government.
Kisumu Weekly E newsletter 19 th April, 2019 FINAL