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STEM Courses in Rural Kenya Open Doors for Girls with Disabilities
Content TypePackage
LanguageEnglish
Transcript/ScriptUSAGM SHARE
((PLAYBOOK SLUG: Kenya STEM Girls Disabilities (TVPKG, RADIO)
HEADLINE: STEM Courses in Rural Kenya Open Doors for Girls with Disabilities
TEASER:
PUBLISHED AT: 5/15/23 at 1:30pm
BYLINE: Ahmed Hussein
CONTRIBUTOR:
DATELINE: Wajir, Kenya
VIDEOGRAPHER: Ahmed Hussein
VIDEO EDITOR:
SCRIPT EDITORS: DLJ, MAS
VIDEO SOURCE(S): VOA
PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB __ TV X RADIO X
TRT: 2:52
VID APPROVED BY: MAS
TYPE: TVPKG/RADIO
EDITOR NOTES:))
((INTRO))
Studying science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM, can be a challenge for girls in rural Africa, especially those with disabilities. In Kenya, an aid group called The Action Foundation is helping to change that by providing remote STEM courses for girls with hearing, visual and physical impairments. Ahmed Hussein reports from Wajir County, Kenya.
((NARRATOR))
Maryan Ronow Bashir and her classmates take STEM classes at a special secondary school for deaf and hard of hearing students in Kenya’s Wajir county.
Thousands of girls with special needs in Kenya have taken part in a program called IBUKA Girls in STEM.
It offers adaptive resources to teach girls with hearing, visual and other kinds of impairments.
((RADIO TRACK… Neville Wanjala is a STEM teacher, He spoke to VOA in an
Interview.))
((Neville Wanjala, STEM Teacher (English, 20 seconds))
“Under this program we teach our kids how to code, we have scratch program, we have robotics and we also have makey-makey kits - as you can see the part that involves more of hand on task work, they grasp that easily.”
((NARRATOR))
The Ibuka Girls in STEM program is spearheaded by The Action Foundation and aims to enhance learning for girls with disabilities in STEM-related fields.
((RADIO TRACK… Maria Omare is CEO and Founder of the Action Foundation))
((Maria Omare, The Action Foundation (English, 13 seconds))
“We currently work with 37 schools across 25 different counties in Kenya and we are supporting 2,200 girls to access STEM training.”
((NARRATOR))
In 2021, The Action Foundation was selected in the google.org impact challenge for women and girls, as part of an empowerment program to expand opportunities in STEM fields for girls with disabilities.
The group’s founder, Maria Omare, says they plan to expand the program to reach more girls with impairments in Kenya and neighboring countries.
((Maria Omare, The Action Foundation (English, 20 seconds))
“We hope to expand the program to reach more schools that work with girls, with or without disabilities across the country and hopefully scale it up to other countries. We have our eyes set at Tanzania, Uganda and Malawi and partners we can scale up the program with.”
((NARRATOR))
The Kenyan government has introduced policy changes and laws to improve education for children with disabilities.
((RADIO TRACK… Harun Hassan is the executive director for National Council for Persons with Disabilities (NCPWD).))
((Harun Hassan, National Council for Persons with Disabilities (English, 40 seconds))
“We coined a full scholarship program that reads together with the child’s disability to support in transition and completion and then other courses associated with disability is also taken care of, like assistive devices and also doing advocacy and mainstreaming as a right, and how institutions can ensure that these kids are not locked out because of their disabilities.”
((NARRATOR))
The foundation plans to expand the program by the end of 2024 for girls with and disabilities in Kenya.
In Africa, officials say girls with disabilities face more challenges such as prejudice, rejection by their families and sexual violence.
But for Maryan Ronow Bashir and other students here, the Ibuka Girls in STEM program goes a long way to reduce inequalities, and they hope, to open economic opportunities in the future.
((Ahmed Hussein, for VOA News, Wajir, Kenya.)
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