Poverty is rife in the bush villages surrounding Nsobe School. Many children walk a long way to school, some even 12/14 kms each way. They may not have had breakfast! The culture is very patriarchal, and girls do not refuse a man. There is a huge percentage of teenage pregnancies, yet the girls themselves want an educated future with a career before marriage. Years ago the Head and Fiona wanted a Safehouse for the most vulnerable yet academically sound, girls. Thanks to our own fundraising and the generosity of our supporters the first is now up and running and the 12 girls are loving it! Now they have running water, solar electricity, beds to sleep on, lighting to study outside school hours, all things we in UK take for granted, not to mention the long walk in often treacherous conditions to their classrooms! They also have their housemother to supervise them when needed.
This is a big step in their maturity, which they are grabbing with both hands!
We raised funds from year 2021 Gower Yomp, naming the Safehouse no 1 "Rhossili house" We will shortly be building Safehouse no 2, calling it "Oxwich" house. Both houses are named after the beautiful South Wales beaches we walked while raising funds on the Gower Yomp.
We also raised more through the Big Give Xmas challenge to build a dormitory for vulnerable girls, with the expectation that there will be a further dormitory for vulnerable boys built in due course.