Empowerment Programs
Soul Source is committed to supporting Empowerment for women, youth and families. Holistic and financial empowerment is done through women’s self-help groups. Youth empowerment is done in partnership with Kamasengre Mixed Secondary School(KMSS). Sponsered university students receive a scholarship and one to one mentoring throughout thier college career.
Holistic Empowerment
Holistic Empowerment is done in conjunction with financial empowerment as a part of a four day workshop model developed by David Gershon and Gail Straub of the Empowerment Institute. This includes The seven areas of life and supporting Community relationships: Mental/learning/personal development, Vocational/career/business, Financial, Family, Social, Physical, and Spiritual.
Financial Empowerment
Financial empowerment is part of the holistic empowerment workshop and includes Entrepreneurship Development, Table Banking and Merry-Go-Round.
- Entrepreneurship Development helps the members to intiate their own incoming generating activity.
- Table Banking is a strategy where the groups meet once every month, and lay their contributions, savings, and loan repayments on the table. Then a few members are able to borrow immediately either as long term or short term loan to be repaid under the terms determined by the group.
- Merry-Go-Round is a savings strategy. Group members contribute a small sum of money at each meeting. Members alternate receiving the lump sum which she can use to: pay school fees, purchase and expensive household item, or in any way she chooses. Thus, in the course of 6 months to a year, each member while contributing only a small amount, will be able walk away with a large sum she is not expected to pay back expect by continuing to contribute to the regular merry-go-round activity.
Youth Empowerment
All KMSS students participate semi-annually in empowerment training workshops that focus on reproductive health as well as academic development in preparation for college and careers. This support and guidance helps youth to build the strength and wisdom to address various situations and challenges.
Education Programs
The Soul Source Foundation believes that part of empowerment within communities, lies within access to comprehensive education. Operation MY People(OMP) provides young women and men with secondary school scholarships at KMSS. Through our post-secondary scholarship program we sponsor several young woman who are KMSS alumni to complete university or college. Sponsored university students receive one-to-one mentoring throughout their college career. At Mgwanza Kay Nursery School students receive breakfast each morining.
Nutrition
Soul Source is a strong believer in taking care of the body so the growth of the mind can follow. The team in the US and the team in Kenya work closely with one another to figure out what the biggest roadblocks to educational and financial success are and then do their best to address them. Hundreds of children at Mgwanza Kay Nursery School receive breakfast porridge each day. It is prepared by local women. At Kamasengre Mixed Secondary School all OMP sponsored students receive daily lunch at school with their peers.
Secondary Scholarship
The Operation My People(OMP) scholarship program is our program that identifies secondary school students with academic promise and economic need to receive a 3/4 scholarship which aims to empower young girls to stay in school through their secondary education and potentially impact the poverty cycle that is part of their community history.
It provides a steady stream of support to the Kamasengre Mixed Secondary School to offset unpaid school fees ensuring the school’s performance as a whole is not jeopardized and improving teacher retention. In this way, not only the 40 sponsored students are affected, but all students enrolled benefit from the stability which the sponsorships help provide. As the school continues to improve, it becomes increasingly eligible for more public funding and the community prospers as well. Recently, the school enrollment has double per request of the government.
Postsecondary Scholarships
Postsecondary educational support enable partnerships with young women who are alumni of KMSS to follow their dreams and complete degrees at university and college.
Soul Source works with local school and community leaders to identify students whose success in secondary school has created opportunities to pursue further education at college, university, or vocational programs. Once identified we help finance next steps in their career development with scholarships that cover tuition and fees. We also provide one-to-one mentorship for each student throughout their academic career. Currently students participating in this program are seeking to become nurses, teachers and other professions that will have a transformative impact on their communities.