Non Governmental Organizations within West Pokot County have been urged to come together and collectively fight for the Pokot girl child.
Rev Julius Murgor the CEO of POM (Pokot Outreach Ministries) organization which deal with several community based voluntary work like drilling of boreholes and offering scholarships of needy children said the girl child within the Pokot community has been neglected and calls for more to be done to uplift them from the major traditional barriers which forces them to be left behind unlike the boy child.
“A girl needs more attention as her life if in danger,” said Murgor.
Murgo said that based on the projects they are undertaking within the community of the pastoralist county the thing that is lacking is the assistance to empower girls.
“We need girls to be empowered for her future to be bright,” he said.
He said that the government and NGOs within the county should plan to ensure the girls are rescued from Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and early marriages which has cut off the best of the girl child from the community.
“We need more rescue centre’s in this place to save the girl chil,” he said.
He noted that by setting up and constructing of rescue centres to accommodate rescued girls and those facing the risk to have a humble learning the Pokot girl child’s future shall be secured.
“We have realized that many girls ran away from their homes yet have nowhere to go thus end up returning to what they were escaping from,” he said.
Murgor noted that several girls within the county dropped out of schools due to early marriages compared to the boy child which calls for an affirmative action.
“We are not saying that boys should not be helped but special emphasis should be on girl child, “he added.
The POM CEO revealed that capacity building and empowering of women in the grass roots has boosted the high number of girls being enrolled in many schools across the county though it’s still too low.
He appealed to the government to deploy more teachers to the county which is under staffed.
He spoke at Lomut in Pokot central sub county after visiting Chesombur secondary school.