WISER

Why Muhuru Bay?

The first WISER school will be based in Muhuru Bay, Kenya, a small fishing village in the Nyanza province on the shore of Lake Victoria near the border of Tanzania. Nyanza province has the highest HIV and malaria infection rates in the country, as well as the greatest poverty. Due to political isolation, Nyanza has not participated in the economic development that has occurred in other regions of Kenya. As is common around the world, girls suffer the most in impoverished communities such as Muhuru Bay.

The Nyanza province has some of the lowest rates for girls completing secondary school (see Human Rights Watch). The statistics of HIV rates and girls’ education are likely to be linked, as girls are usually the first to be removed from school when a family member becomes ill with AIDS or dies. Girls that are removed from school and that lack education are more likely to become infected with HIV, as sexual involvement with an older man is often the only way to support themselves and their families.

In the Lake Victoria region of Nyanza, it is also common for women and girls to be required to have sex with fishermen in order to buy their goods to have access to this valuable source of protein (Mail & Guardian, 4/13/06). This gender specific spiral of educational deprivation and disease burden has led to the strong gender disparity in HIV infection rates in Kenya, with women dramatically overrepresented (see www.unaids.org). The ripple effects of having sick, poor, uneducated women can be enormous. Conversely, there are also significant negative effects on a population if their women are sick, poor, or uneducated.

Kenya recently legislated compulsory primary school.  However, girls often don’t complete primary school due to family roles, forced marriages, and early pregnancies. Girls are expected to comply with the wishes of their male peers and teachers, who often request unprotected sex, which leads to pregnancies and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV. Those that do continue their education are negatively impacted by low community expectations. Even those girls who complete secondary school with the financial support of their families do so at academic levels vastly inferior to their male peers. There are few educated female role models in the community, as the local boarding school does not even have female teachers. Preliminary data from a study conducted by Dr. Broverman and Duke University students in the only secondary school in Muhuru Bay in 2006 indicates that less than a third of all female secondary school students interviewed (n=60) personally know an college educated women, while over 80% of all male students (n=150) know a college educated man.

WISER recognizes that women are currently the most underutilized resource in the region and, therefore, their potentially pivotal role in promoting community health and economic development. Investing in womens’ education in Muhuru Bay will ultimately increase the quality of life for both men and women in the region.