We are very excited that student numbers are steadily increasing at the Don Bosco Technical Institute Marsabit in northern Kenya. There are currently 100 students on the apprenticeship, including 54 girls and 46 boys – for the first time in the school’s history, more girls than boys have been enrolled in practical skills courses. In Kenya, boys in particular enrol in practical skills courses, while the number of girls on apprentices ranges from 30-40%. The high number of girls is undoubtedly the fruit of the recently completed project Better Access to Skills for Youth in the Marsabit Region, in which we built a new girls‘ dormitory on the school premises with the financial support of SlovakAid.

For girls, dormitory means better access to apprenticeships on the road to self-sufficiency, which is still a rarity for women in Marsabit County. Girls are excited about campus; it’s a safe environment for them to experience. We see the construction of the dormitory as an important step towards empowering women from rural areas of Marsabit. Of the current 54 girls in the apprenticeship, 17 are in a secretarial skills course, 18 are in a tailoring course, 17 are in a hairdresser’s and cosmetics course and 2 girls in a mechanics course.