Josephine’s Story
“Tewa is a great place to be, it lets me be who I want to be in the future.”
Kilifi County, Kenya is renowned for its beautiful beaches and popular resorts, making it a major centre for Kenya’s expanding tourism industry. However, Kilifi county is also one of the nation’s poorest counties. The female literacy rate is just 30% compared to the national average of 74%. Consequently, the county struggles with widespread poverty and the inability of locals to access the job market due to low education access.
WONDER partner, Tewa Hospitality Training Centre is widely respected in the community, industry leaders often look to hire Tewa graduates first! The centre trains its students to meet international standards of hospitality, ensuring they enter the job market with a skill-set that guarantees them access to a well-paid job. Tewa students like Josephine graduate with the ability to transform their lives and forge their own life-paths.
I have been taking studies in the hospitality industry where we learn housekeeping, kitchen production, service.
Not only does Tewa impact the lives of its students, but the centre runs out-reach programs for women and girls of all ages in the wider neighbourhood. They offer a range of programmes from adult literacy courses, cooking, sewing as well as nutrition and hygiene classes. This work creates community-wide sustainable change, ensuring that the legacy of a Tewa education is cross-generational.
After finishing my studies of two years I did an internship at Hemingways Hotel, where I could prove my skills. It was a great opportunity because it made me gain more skills and deal with different kinds of people.
In a nation where 23% of girls are married under 18, the inability to access a good education has long-term, detrimental consequences for women and girls across the nation. Those in rural counties such as Kilifi are even more vulnerable, they are twice as likely to be forced into child marriage. Tewa provides women and girls with the opportunity to gain independence, empowering them to empower themselves and their families. By providing students in need with scholarships, WONDER seeks to support Tewa in its work educating women, helping them gain the skills to take advantage of the tourism industry in the area.
I thank the management of Tewa who have helped me learn good skills, which has helped me gain more skills in everything.
Josephine is a former student of Tewa Hospitality Training Centre.
