Kenya Xperience!

 Lifting the Barriers

Lifting the Barriers, a community based organisation in Kilifi, was founded in 2009 to support women and girls in KIlifi to shape their destiny.  While the focus has been more on enabling girls realize their potential, in 2012, Lifting the Barriers made its approach flexible to accommodate boys when we felt that an inclusive programme would enable LIBA achieve its objectives better of reaching out to more girls and women.  Many of the problems faced by women and girls in Kilifi require a thorough understanding of the underlying causes. In order to have a real and sustained change, political support or new legislation is required. Lifting the Barriers campaigns for long-term change in addition to providing shorter-term support as it strives to reach the excluded in the society especially women, girls, persons with disabilities and people living with HIV/AIDS.

LIBA would like to achieve the following program objectives in all its projects:

• Increase information literacy among women and girls.
• Improve access, retention, completion and transition rates in education for all children and particularly for the girls.
• Improve entrepreneurial and work readiness skills and competencies for young people, particularly girls

LIBA has 3 programs

1. 1. The BEST Initiative : This is an acronym for Banking on Education for Social Transformation.  This initiative brings together all activities that enhance learning in schools.   Activities done under BEST include

      Projects under BEST include:

• Learning companion (on going):

This intervention consists of providing a platform for school children (from a number of primary as well as secondary schools) in Kilifi to interact with students from Pwani University, a higher education institution also based in Kilifi. These students serve as role models and mentors.

• Material and other support  to learners (on-going):

LIBA provides scholarships, school uniforms, learning materials among other things to learners in primary and secondary after a careful selection process of needy children.   Improvement of the school learning environment is also part of the project.

1. 2. The BOLD Initiative: This is also an Acronym for Broadening Opportunities for Learning and Development.  This initiative brings together all activities that enable women and girls to take a more active role in shaping their own destiny by driving development themselves.

     Projects under BOLD include:

• Functional Literacy and Lifeskills (FULL) Training (on going): this projects targets young people out school (School drop outs and form four leavers).  Lifting the Barriers bridges the information and literacy gaps to enable the young people out of school map out  career path
• Women Interventions in Financial Empowerment (WIFE) – on going:  Women with low literacy levels are provided financial literacy lessons to enable tem start and manage a business.  They have been trained to start the Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLA) where they later access loans to start and expand their own businesses.

1. 3. Every Girl…..Campaign (on going):

This initiative focuses on tackling the unique gender-based challenges that girl’s face thus pushing them out of school.

Volunteer opportunities

LIBA is looking for volunteers with a particular interest in community development and working with children, youth and women for:

• Fundraising
• Entrepreneurship and Employment training (we have a computer lab) for youth out of school
• Website development training
• Developing specific programs for nursery or kindergarten children
• Developing a robust M&E plan

Volunteers will be at the project Mondays – Fridays.

Accommodation in Kilifi:

Watergate hotel (1200/1400 shilling single room, 1200 shilling double room), guesthouse Belozi with kitchen facilities (2000 shilling single room, 3000 shilling double room), Distant Relatives ecolodge & backpackers (500 shilling camping, 1000 shilling dormitory, 2000 shilling private room – prices negotiable for long stay), Bofa beach resort (Ksh 2500 for tented rooms and Ksh 3500 for non-tented rooms for 1 – 3 persons), guest rooms in private house (2000 shilling including breakfast)