"I am proud to be a girl.
I am beautiful.
I am strong.
I am confident."
Fikia Dada
A Bit About Us | Our Timeline
How it all began...
Fikia Dada means Reach a Girl in Kiswahili, The native language in Kenya.
We founded Fikia Dada in 2015 as two local volunteers, Nila and Margaret. We started travelling between schools all over the country, leading talks to our young girls on sexual education and menstrual hygiene which is something that is kept so quiet in the Kenyan society and is considered taboo to be spoken of.
In these sessions, we were also issuing hygiene kits - which included a reusable pad, a disposable sanitary pad, a set of underwear and a bar of soap.
Upon interaction with these young girls and several different head teachers, we learnt that many were victims of extreme poverty, domestic violence, rape, forced early marriage and FGM (Female Genital Mutilation.)
Some of these girls, as young as 13 years old were pregnant and not well equipped to become mothers at such a young age.
When one falls pregnant, she is usually chased away by the family and judged by our society. She is left to deal with all of this on her own. Most try home abortions, some even take their own life. If they go through with the pregnancy, in more cases then not, the baby is abandoned and then left an orphan.
If the girl child accepts that this is what has happened and she is now going to begin motherhood, Almost always her education will end right there.
In December 2019...
We went to a local Primary School for one of our sessions and the head teacher approached us and asked if we do anything more to assist to the girl child. She introduced us to a young girl who was 15 years old, had just sat her final exams for her KCPE (Kenya Certificate of Primary Education) and she was 8.5 months pregnant. She was living in extreme poverty in the Tea Village and had no idea what she was to do once the baby was born.
We looked everywhere for a Childrens Home or a Rescue Centre for this young girl and her child and to our surprise could not find one that would take in both Mum and baby.
That's when we got talking to one of our friends who has always assisted and supported Fikia Dada. Her name is Avril and she was always either volunteering in our sessions in Kenya, raising us funds, sewing and sending us reusable pads from her home, Ireland.
We explained the situation and she told us to go find a house and she will assist with the rent as there is no way we could have this girl and her baby living on the streets.
In January 2020...
It all happened very fast. Fikia Dada then expanded to Fikia Dada Rescue Centre.
We found a 4 bedroom house on a 1 acre plot and this young girl moved in with her new born baby.
It wasn't long before we were approached again with another case, and then another. Within 3 months our Centre had 5 girls, 2 babies and 1 on the way.
Our Fikia Dada family was growing.
In March 2020...
We had started planting our own seedlings to be able to grow our own vegetables and started treating these young girls as our own. Giving them the love and support that they deserved.
However, we were unsure where we were going to get our finances from to be able to support our growing Fikia Dada family.
We started reaching out to previous volunteers asking if they could assist in fundraising and that's when Brittany dropped everything and flew over to be on the ground and assist where she could. She had only planned to stay for 6 weeks but little did we all know, the Covid-19 pandemic was about to hit... She ended up staying in Kenya for just short of a year!
Our Mission
Our mission is to home young women who have suffered trauma; allowing them time to heal, raise their babies without judgement and have a chance to reform their lives.
With the help of Fikia Dada, these girls are able to complete their education and to learn new skills within our Centre that will enable them to earn a living to eventually support their young ones.
This will eradicate poverty and reduce the common cycle of having more kids that they cannot support.
One Year On...
We have faced some huge struggles throughout the Covid-19 pandemic; however, we would rather focus on all of the positives.
Every day is a learning day for us and we are proud of our growth and determination to make this work.
We have achieved some pretty epic things in our first year of operations and we wouldn't have been able to continue without the support from our family, friends, previous volunteers, mentors, donors and sponsors.
Brit sold her car back in Australia and with the help of a friend back home – they were able to purchase and donate an 8-seater van to the Centre so we did not have to use public transport anymore for our Clinic Appointments/ Shopping Days etc.
We raised enough funds to begin our Chicken Project where we now have 200 chickens laying eggs.
We have hired a House Mama, a Caretaker and a Driver.
We have enrolled 5 of our girls back into School.
We renovated our garage and turned it into a new bedroom to be able to home two more girls.
We produced two documentaries on our Social accounts to be able to spread more awareness and help us find partnerships/ major sponsorship.
Our Shamba (farm) is thriving and we are 100% self-sustainable with vegetables.
Our Fikia Dada Committee/ Community abroad is growing with new volunteers wanting to be involved.
We connected with a Canadian based community called Building Sisterhood who host weekly Zoom mentor sessions with our family.
We have supported 5 girls pre-natal and being there for them during their labor.
We now support and love 10 girls, 6 babies and 1 on the way.