When we launched the Girls' Mentorship Cohort in 2024, we deliberately kept the model simple: no elaborate curriculum, just consistent weekly conversation between girls in classes 6 to 8 and women volunteers drawn from the local community, built around trust rather than a rigid syllabus.
A year on, we worked with Gituamba Primary's guidance and counselling teacher to informally compare attendance and participation records for the 41 girls who had completed at least one full term in the program against the wider upper-primary cohort, understanding fully that this is a small, informal comparison rather than a rigorous academic study.
The teacher's records showed participating girls missed noticeably fewer school days per term than the wider comparison group, a gap she attributes largely to reduced menstruation-related absenteeism following our distribution of reusable sanitary kits and open discussion of menstrual health within sessions.
“I have taught here for eleven years. I cannot remember a cohort of girls speaking as openly about their goals, or asking as many questions in class, as the group that has been through this mentorship program.”
— Guidance and counselling teacher, Gituamba Primary
Beyond attendance, mentors report a marked shift in how comfortable girls are raising personal or academic difficulties, several mentor-mentee pairs from the first cohort continue informal check-ins a year after their official sessions ended, evidence that the relationships built are outlasting the structured program itself.
We are documenting this approach more formally so it can eventually be shared with other community groups interested in replicating a low-cost, volunteer-led mentorship model. If your organization is interested in learning from our approach, reach out through the Contact page.
Your donation or volunteer hour goes directly into work like the story above — not overhead.
Get involved