The Literacy Kitchen Project at The Akili Preparatory School for Girls ~ Kisumu County, Kenya
The Akili Preparatory School for Girls, founded by the Riley Orton Foundation, is an all girls boarding school located in the rural village of Obambo and supporting underprivileged girls aged 9 to 14 years from both Obunga slum and Obambo village, Kisumu County, Kenya. The school is from 3rd grade to 8th grade and has 40 girls who board and about 20 day scholars.
The Literacy Garden Project
An integral part of the Akili Preparatory School for Girls, the Literacy Garden project is an outdoor learning space focused on developing the knowledge of rural, adolescent girls and children through the promotion of literacy, food security, environmentalism, and healthy lifestyles. Nutrition is an ongoing concern for children in poverty with hungry children unable to focus in school, and no money to spare to buy text books or story books. Akili’s sustainable farm program provides nutritious meals for the students and income for the school. They also grow a variety of vegetables and have a poultry farm.
The Literacy Garden project was started after seeing how many rural children are failed in tests because of their inability to read and comprehend questions. It blends literacy, storytelling, poetry, music, drama, sports, food production, environmentalism and technology in a comprehensive program that nurtures marginalized girls' talents and leadership skills so they'll be able to use their language proficiency and self-confidence for advocacy on issues important to them. It will address the lack of access to culturally relevant books, digital or technical training, and functional libraries that prevent rural girls from flourishing academically.
The Literacy Kitchen Project ~ funded by WaterBridge Outreach
The Literacy Kitchen is the newest building located in the Literacy Garden where they also have a multipurpose hall, bookstore, a story telling circle, and are finishing the construction of an amphitheater.
The Literacy Kitchen will connect their gardening activities, which teach the children how to grow and harvest food using small scale sustainable bio-intensive gardening techniques, to literacy in a indoor setting where the students will develop their language and numeracy skills, self-expression and self-esteem by reading, writing and following recipes during the cooking sessions. The building will also be used for poetry, storytelling and general reading and writing workshops.
WaterBridge Outreach is thrilled to be part of this innovative project and to be working with Mama Hope and the Riley Orton Foundation to generate positive and sustainable change by empowering Kenyan girls through the provision of a quality education.