HER Lab

Opportunities for young women include but are not limited to:

Supporting marginalized adolescent girls and rural young women in accessing employment opportunities by giving them relevant skills (professional skills, soft skills, life skills) and personal development support. This is done through:

A Secondary School Program – Young women attending school at partner secondary schools receive further skills training, including soft skills and life skills, which help them get ready for work. These skills are normally left out of Kenya’s secondary school curricula. The program helps ensure that adolescent girls graduating from secondary school exit with a toolkit to advance into tertiary education or work.

HER Lab – this is a centre where young people who have recently graduated from secondary school, or who dropped from school, engage in a year-long series of tailored skills training (for both general professional skills and career-specific skills) and soft skills, to increase their chances of succeeding in work.

Upskilling young women in areas such as beadwork, entrepreneurship, and digital skills.

Mentorship – these young people receive one-on-one mentoring from economically empowered women (either based in Kenya, or internationally). Mentors and mentees engage in regular communication on a variety of topics, and the relationships increase marginalized adolescent girls and rural young women’s social and professional support networks.

Journalising – During program implementation, young women engage in journaling activities (writing their stories in journals). These journal entries promote their personal growth and healing. The journals also help the program to understand the goals and aspirations of young women and the barriers they face to living holistically dignified and fulfilling lives; therefore, it uses this information to provide them with better solutions and support.

Career resources and counselling – the girls and young women access a career resource center to find information that make it easier to find work, eg guidance on building relationships with employers through online interactions, networking, identifying, and applying to dignified and fulfilling jobs, etc.

Young women are organized to create their own businesses (micro, small, and medium enterprises). They are set into groups to develop business ideas and plans, and receive funding (loans) to implement them.

Organize and facilitate women-led village savings and loan associations (VSLAs) and investment groups among marginalized adolescent girls and/or rural young women to increase their chances of being given finances (loans). It also helps them save as a group and invest.

Engage industry in private and public sectors to create employment opportunities for qualified young women from marginalised communities.

This program is geared toward young women from hard-to-reach counties of West Pokot, Samburu and Narok.