What happens when a child is given the chance to imagine a life beyond what she knows?
For a child growing up with very little, the first limitation may not be money. It may be imagination. Not because she lacks dreams, but because she has never seen enough of the world to know what might be possible for her.
That is one of the quiet lessons emerging from She Is Rising from The North – Education Works, photographer and documentary filmmaker Hildah Kathure’s new book about girls from Northern Kenya whose journeys have taken them from grazing fields to classrooms, universities and professional life.
For more than 15 years, Kathure has watched close to 500 girls change, sometimes long before the graduation photographs and certificates arrive. The moment that matters most to her is when a girl begins to see herself differently.
“I have witnessed a girl who was once too shy to speak start raising her hand and begin asking questions, another talking about becoming a doctor, teacher, veterinary professional or entrepreneur,” says the filmmaker and Liaison Officer, MOV Foundation, Netherlands, adding: “The first transformation is in the mind.”
And sometimes, that transformation begins because someone outside the family believes in the child.
For families struggling with poverty, education is rarely just about paying school fees. There are uniforms, books, transport, food, accommodation and, later, college or university fees and equipment.
“For girls in pastoralist communities, there may also be younger siblings to care for, water to fetch, household duties to perform and livestock to tend,” says the film-maker, adding: although parents may love their children deeply and still struggle to imagine a different future for them.
“When you are thinking about survival, drought, livestock, water, food and the needs of several children, it can be difficult to imagine a future that feels very far away,” Kathure says.
“The girl who once needed someone to believe in her becomes the woman who believes in another girl.”
– Kathure
This is where support from outside the family can become significant.
A sponsor, teacher, organisation or another adult can sometimes provide more than money. They can provide exposure and, perhaps most importantly, a message: your life is worth investing in; your dream matters.
For a child, that shift can be transformative—from asking “What can I afford?” to wondering “What can I become?” Kathure says many girls initially see education through the immediate relief of fees paid, a uniform, books or a place to stay. But with time, the meaning deepens.
Education becomes more than access to school; it becomes a bridge to a different life, expanding what a girl believes is possible.
Aisha Abdi Sonkor, for example, dreamed of joining KMTC and achieved it through MOV Foundation. Others followed similarly difficult journeys.
“A younger girl can look at a woman from her own community and think ‘If she did it, perhaps I can too,’” says Rukia Ibrahim, Principal of Al-Maim Primary School, who had drawn inspiration from other beneficiaries of the 26-year-old project.
“This is a powerful form of parenting – even when the person doing the believing is not the child’s parent,” says Catherine Mugendi, a family coach psychologist.
However, she says, the parent still matters because this does not in any way take the place and role of parents, nor does it diminish it.
Kathure is clear that parents remain central to a child’s journey. They make sacrifices, encourage their daughters, find transport, negotiate difficult circumstances and keep pushing when the journey becomes hard.
Education, she says, is collective.
“Parents, teachers, sponsors, communities and organisations can all become part of the bridge, but there is another lesson for parents who can afford to educate their children, because paying school fees is not the same as knowing the child,” explains Wainainah Kiganya, a counselling psychologist.
The expert urges parents to ask questions that go beyond marks and school reports and find out what their child want, what they are good at, what excites them and what kind of problems they want solved.
“Sometimes adults make plans for children without first listening to the children themselves, and a child may be living inside an adult’s ambition when what she needs is permission to discover her own,” says Mugendi.