Behind The Pink gate
Safe spaces are critical for the autonomy that many Girls need to
develop. As part of the larger women's movement agenda, RCWG has
created a unique safe space, behind our Pink Gate. This is a space where adolescent girls can develop social assets, political awareness, talk together and decide what their own needs and wants are. BTPG is a safe entry point for difficult discussions and decisions.
BTPG is a space where Girls can bond without patriarchal interruptions of any kind. BTPG is an active political strategy where young Kenyan Women and adolescent Girls can become conscious and articulate about themselves and their environment, and also define their own ideas as individual women and as a constituency of SISTERS that is affected by patriarchal
laws and practices! It is a space for self-reflection and celebration; and, it is safe!
Follow us to find out all the things that happen BTPG
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Message from The Resource Center for Women and Girls (RCWG) ; Sisters..Protect yourself and others from the spread of COVID - 19. Stay aware of the latest information on COVID - 19 outbreaks on this link www.who.int/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public.
The Resource Center for Women and Girls (RCWG) helps to facilitate the personal growth of girls by giving them access to knowledge and increasing their awareness of their rights. We believe that by investing in women and girls, it will help create a generation of women unafraid to speak for themselves and break the barriers imposed to them by outdated social norms.
The Challenge
It is difficult for Kenyan girls to dream big. It is neither a lack of drive or ambition that keeps them from fulfilling their potential, but a series of obstacles driven by a patriarchal social system and by extreme poverty. For many families in rural Kenya, boys are considered a more worthwhile investment than girls. They cannot afford to send all their children to school, so given the choice, it will likely be the boys. Girls are either kept home to help with household chores or sent out to work. This is particularly harmful to teenage girls who are vulnerable to assault in the streets. The daily reality for women and girls is one plagued by harmful practices that encumber the possibility of fulfilled potential. They face gender-based violence, sexual violence, harassment, early marriage, polygamy and female genital mutilation. Traditions and custom governing inheritance and land acquisition also tend to favour men, leaving women with no chances of acquiring the capital that can help them become independent. When women are wronged, their ability to access legal justice is prohibitively expensive. As a result of these constant pressures and hurdles, and with few female role models in the community, girls are denied hope and barred from aiming high.
The RESPONSE
The Resource Center for Women and Girls (RCWG) was set up in 2007 in Machakos, south east of the capital Nairobi. Its goal is to help facilitate the personal growth of girls by giving them access to knowledge and increasing their awareness of their rights. The idea is to support them to grow into informed and independent women who are able to make their own choices and improve life in their communities and beyond. RCWG believes that by investing in women and girls, it will help create a generation of women unafraid to speak for themselves and break the barriers imposed on them by outdated social norms. RCWG offers a series of mentoring camps that equip participants with the tools to make informed decisions about their bodies and their lives, with an emphasis on solidarity and leadership run by alumni of previous girls’ camps. Girls are taught about sexual and reproductive health and rights, ensuring they understand that it is their right to live in safe environments, free from violence. The girl-centred and girl-led nature of the activities is very encouraging to newcomers. The organisation also runs workshops for parents, to help explain the importance of girls’ human rights and how these can affect a whole community. The group encourages girls to stay in school and develop their skills.
The Resource Center for Women and Girls is keen on expanding our networks and increasing our impact numbers by imparting information significant to their respective gender. The idea is to gauge the impact social norms affect students’ personal development. This year, we plan to do this by visiting various schools where our alumni and camp participants go to school. This ensures that we have a larger pool of girls we are working with and we have the support of school authorities.
This year The Resource Center for Women and Girls were able to participate in Commission on the Status of Women (CSW 63). Our work in line with the CSW agenda, addresses among others, SDGs3 Good Health and Well-being through our sexual and reproductive health and rights program. Also using SDG4 Quality Education through our work with schools, we ensured a reduced number of school drop outs, through our menstrual management and proper infrastructure and sanitation programme, that girls go to school, stay and finish school.
Using SDG5 Gender Inequality through our mentoring programmes our girls are taught about their human rights and the emphasis that women’s rights are human rights and SDG17 Partnerships for the goals respectively through collaborating with like-minded organisations.
Through partnerships and collaborations with other organisations, our work also addresses SDG8 goals of promoting sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.
