Building the First Classroom at Lenana Girls High School

In June of 2013, Lift the Lid sent $1419.50 (116744.44 KES) to Lenana Girls High School in Kitale, Kenya. This accumulation of 17 individual donations went toward building Lenana’s first classroom. The photo above is the progress we’ve made. Thank you to all who are helping us to make this high school for displaced, intelligent and motivated girls possible.

Common Ground for Africa, with the help of Lift the Lid and local communities and women’s groups, is building a boarding school for orphaned, vulnerable, and dispossessed girls from the age of 11 to 22. Its name is Lenana Girls High School, the sister school to Lenana, the all-boys school in the village of Karen, near Nairobi. Laibon Lenana was a legendary leader of the Maasi people until the early 20th Century. The school will be open to students of all tribes and religions.

The best chance for young girls in Kenya to gain an education is through boarding schools, where they will be housed, educated, and protected from cultural traditions such as early marriage (at the age of 12 or 13) and Female Genital Mutilation. The school will empower the next generation of African women by providing high-quality education, personalized mentoring, and rigorous leadership development.