Projects We Support

Selected Project:  

Sora Duba Dadacha, Early Childhood Development Scholarship Northern Frontier District, Kenya

 
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Early Childhood Development.

Who is he: Mr. Dadacha is the founder and Headmaster of the Kalacha Nomadic Girls School.  His aim is to bring young females of the Gabbra area of Kalacha out of poverty and into empowerment through education.

What does he do: Early Childhood Development, boarding school for Nomadic Gabbra girls,  The school began with 75 girls in 2000 and has grown to over 600 girls from  aged  9- 16 year olds in 2006.  Students are from the near-by settlement community of Kalacha Dida and the farther reaching the nomadic Gabbra  throughout the Marsabit District.

How did WildiZe help him: WildiZe provided Mr. Dadacha with  a grant to study early childhood development at Kenyatta University, Institute of Open Learning.  WildiZe has provided funds to refurbish the school buildings, provide educational materials and supplies and early learning development tools.

Results: With the benefit of the advanced studies, Mr. Dadacha, a Gabbra,  is better able to prepareyoung girls/ women to pursue higher education, and address their cultural issues while empowering them toward reorientation of tradition to address contemporary advances in education, sciences and health care. The school has grown from 75 girls at its inception to over 600 girls in 2006-07.

The education for nomadic girls has been marginalized and relegated to second class, leaving young girls and women by the wayside, "captives of their culture and customs".  The area of the Chalbi Desert is characterized by little or low rainfall and widely dispersed forage for livestock and resources. The proportion of community members living below the poverty level is close to 95%.

In order to mitigate this poverty the nomadic community will often marry off the young girls at an early age with a view toward getting doweries, and it has gone against the grain of culture to send young girls to school.

When Mr. Dadacha's goal was appointed Headmaster of the Nomadic Girls School he was confronted with serious challenges, and he set about breaking through the undesirable cultural and customary boundaries of social injustice.

Under his care, the young girls attending the school were immediately protected from

  • Early forced marriage
  • Forced female circumcision
  • Domestic chores that would normally be used as an excuse to keep girls from attending school
  • Young girls being kept from access to literacy
For a deeper understanding of the depth of committment Mr. Dadacha has to his community and life work, please read his personal statement, which is a requirement of a WildiZe Scholarship Grant.

For a view of the school please visit the full WildiZe short film at Goodfocus - scroll down the list of films and watch the WildiZe short film online!












FAST FACTS:

Most  nomadic and semi-nomadic communities  depend on livestock for their livelihood. The girls' education  is often  sacrificed for the sake of livestock. Parents force boys to go to school and the girls are required to look after the animals.

According to statistics from the Garissa District Education Office, the enrolment rate of girls is just half that for boys.

WHERE and WHAT IS KALACHA DIDA?

The words "Kalacha Dida" are Gabbra, meaning 'place of open space"

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Kalacha is a vital settlement as it is located at a natural underground spring fed oasis.
The village and area is a two day drive North of Nairobi. By camel, it takes a week! By bus, or the overlander, it will take 3 days.
From Nairobi, you start out on some relatively good paved road, then this turns into dirt tracks and lightly traveled trails, then into out and out open rock on non existent roads through vast lava fields.
The Oasis is vital to the nomadic camel herders and is populated by the Gabbra community of 3000 that dwells there year round. The settled community is no longer nomadic, relying mainly on their community shamba (garden) and microenterprise for sustainance and sustainablitly.
In this harsh arid environment a rich traditional tribal life has endured for centuries. The Gabbra are a part of the Galla peoples, a migrating drift of pastoralists who arrived in Northern Kenya several hundred years ago from the Horn of Africa. Over the years the traditional nomadic life has been dwindling, being replaced by a more centralized village lifestyle bringing many new challenges.
To learn more about the Gabbra, please read Fr. Paul Tablino's excellent account of Gabbra history and culture; "The Gabra- Camel Nomads of Northern Kenya" published by Paulines Publications of Africa. It can be purchased through the Catholic Bookshop, Nairobi, Kenya.