Imagine functioning off of one cup of water every day. Whether studying, working, or lounging around the house, the ability to concentrate, be active, and even rest peacefully evaporates like water in the hot Kenyan sun. This nightmarish scenario is their everyday reality for the girls at Nkaroni Girl’s School. These inspiring young girls toil through the school year with minimal water and many other difficulties unimaginable to most in 2022.

A cup isn’t just the measurement for water. The girls receive one cup of porridge for breakfast every day at 6:30 am. One cup of beans and rice for lunch every day. One cup of maize and beans for dinner every day.  They get the rest of their nutrients only on Sundays when they can briefly enjoy a small piece of goat meat and bread. If their lack of food wasn’t challenging enough, the school doesn’t have the funds for a table in their “dining hall,” so the girls eat everything standing up. 

As devastating as all of this is, it’s hardly the brink of the girl’s poor living conditions. The dining hall isn’t the only small, unfinished building or facility that the school has. Due to having only two latrines, smaller than the average closet, there is one twenty-minute period where the girls can use the bathroom. They can’t even go when they need to, the time is preset for everyone every day. The smell from the poorly dug bathroom carries into the dormitory next door.

One hundred fifty girls, one dormitory. Two girls, one twin-size bed.  Four beds, one tiny corner of the building. There is no privacy, no space for themselves, not even a tiny corner to change their clothes or take off their shoes at the end of the day.

For Saloni, one of the students at Nkaroni Girls’ School, she has to look past the challenges to appreciate the opportunity that being able to attend school provides her. Her life turned upside down during sixth grade when her father passed away. Due to financial difficulties, the rest of her siblings were forced to drop out of school. By the final year of her primary school, Saloni was on the verge of giving up school. Her mother had already sold all of their cattle, goats, and camels just to provide necessities for their family. Saloni was lost, despite her excellent final exam scores, putting her at the top of her class.

A few days after the rest of her former classmates had all gone to their respective secondary schools, Saloni heard about a new school that had recently opened up and was accepting new students. She borrowed clothes, blankets, and even soap from her neighbors and walked herself to Nkaroni Girls’ School. The school accepted her and took her in; the principal even bought Saloni her own uniform.

As excited as Saloni was to attend school again, life wasn’t much easier. Nonetheless, she continues to dream big. She wants to become a nurse and an inspiration for her home village. Saloni speaks with a relentless optimism that one day her school will have the infrastructure it needs for all the girls to succeed. 

“Nkaroni Girls’ School gives me a reason to live and the hope that my life can be different,” Saloni exclaimed. She hopes it propels her, her family, and her entire village to break free from poverty, and she knows she will be a game-changer in her community.

Despite everything these powerful girls go through daily, like Saroni, their love for learning hasn’t dwindled. “Physics!” “Agriculture!” “English” were all excitedly hollered out when asked about their favorite subject. Every single girl dreams of going to university. It’s a fantastic dream and something to look forward to, especially considering the girls finishing Form 2 (10th grade) don’t have a classroom to learn next year.

At the end of the year, the girls graduating from the nearby Primary School will move into the Form 1 (9th grade) classroom. The girls currently in Form 1 will move into the Form 2 classroom, leaving the girls currently in Form 2 without a learning space in one of the most vital years to study for the exams that could lead to them getting into university. 

The Samburu Project is working to provide not only more classrooms for these students but also a dining hall fit to eat, another dormitory to allow for a whole night’s rest, enough bathrooms to remove their time limit, and of course, a well that can provide each girl with an adequate supply of clean water.

The girls dream of more water, food, bathrooms, beds, and classrooms, but in the meantime, they go through school with joy and a refreshing love for learning. While a cup of water a day doesn’t keep the doctors away, it doesn’t keep the smiles away either.