The story of Esther

Girls and young women in rural Kenya struggle to go to school. They have huge family responsibities and little hope of escape, except through education. A friend sent me the story of a girl (I will call her Esther) who attends a very poor school in a rural area, about 20 kilometres from Kakamega. She has given me permission to use the story, but I have edited some elements. These are my friend's words:

Back in 2008 after looking at the photos of a beautiful 10 year old girl I'd seen over and over on my two visits to the school in 2007 , I send an email to a local resident asking her name and details of her life. When there, I had seen her daily either in her school uniform or carrying endless containers of water from the river.... back and forth all day, it seemed. But she was so photogenic......and shy and lovely....and luminescent.

It was at least three months till the contact went into Kakamega on his trusty bicycle and saw my email with photo of the girl and replied. Apparently the girl was a neighbour whose family compound was near his guest house that we stayed in. He gave me her name. Esther is the 21st child of a polygamous family. Her own mama had birthed 10 children and she was the second youngest. I had asked if she was in school and found that she was indeed in school in Standard 4 and at the top of her class. I was also told that her future was already determined since her father had promised her in marriage to an older man in the area by age 13.
I was shocked. I asked by email if there was any way I could ask for her to be educated instead, offering myself as her sponsor. And lo and behold... my contact negotiated this for me.
It was 2 or 3 months before I heard that the father had granted my request. More years of connection at a distance went by. I was now sponsoring Projects in the school. . I offered to pay her fees whenever she was sent from school for lack of them... and later provided sanitary pads for all the menstruating girls in the school so that they wouldn't miss out on classes each month. Esther became what my colleague called "our poster child" and we featured her in our photos for the projects and at the Grand Opening of the Well, she read a beautiful poem about orphans, I am told. She received daily 'honorary' orphans food rations and notebooks and pencils. My friend often remarked that she was a positive role model for the other children.
In Standard Six, she was doing quite well in her studies, Standard Seven, she wasn't doing so well. I had asked all my volunteer teachers to TUTOR her as much as possible. They all felt that she WAS A HARD-WORKING STUDENT but lacked the basic skills that were not taught to her in the lower standards. I guess they were unable to teach her from their own lack of skills???
And now in her KCPE, scoring 11th place out of 42. Anyway....that's the story of Esther and the marriage that wasn't.

Of note: Girls in this village still disappear from school into marriage, even mid-term.
Yet..this year 21 of the 42 sitting for KCPE were girls !!!

FOOTNOTE:
The Tembo team went to this school to interview for scholarships. Three students will be starting secondary school in February thanks to the scholarships provided. We were able to negotiate a place for Esther at a high achieving boarding primary school where she will 'rewind' her final year of primary school. This gives her a much better chance of fitting successfully into a high school the following year.
I will post some pictures of our interviews and more details in the next message.