Women are at the centre of many communities and we believe that by empowering them you can empower girls. Strong female role models can be found in our classrooms, parent-teacher associations and within our organisation.

In Kenya, we created the ‘Super Mama’ programme. Each academy elects ‘Super Mamas’, who are closely involved with the school to work on empowerment programmes and act as role models.

‘Super Mamas’ are the voice of their communities and contribute to planning and decision making at our academies. We encourage communities to learn from each other and have even held national women’s leadership conferences to enable Super Mamas to come together, share experiences and take new knowledge back to their communities.

In addition, Super Mamas continue to work in their communities by supporting other women in starting new businesses, creating forums around important issues and by acting as leaders. Various projects that have been lead by Super Mamas include:

• pooling their funds to buy a gazebo that can be hired for events (above)
• the provision of sanitary pads to our pupils
• supporting school feeding programmes
• helping other parents with financial planning

Watching these Super Mamas in action provides great role models for not only girls but also boys. Children learn to recognise the important role that women play in community life.

We hope to roll out the Super Mama programme to the other countries where we work.