‘Self-esteem was low. Look at them now’ : the scheme getting Kenya’s girls back to school

Over a thousand girls in rural Isiolo county, many of them young mothers, are catching up in the classroom. But entrenched cultural barriers remain a challenge for educators

For much of her girlhood, Lucy Koriang* would spend her days taking the family's goat herd out, walking for several kilometres a day, looking for the best grazing spots.

Being a goat herder was not a job she enjoyed or chose, especially in the unbearably high temperatures of Isiolo county, northern Kenya, where she lives. Her father, like most parents in Ngaremara village, saw little point in taking his children to school. Moving from the shelter of one thorny acacia tree to another, the 13-year-old would get lost in her thoughts, dreaming of a different life.