Akili Dada: Empowering Young Kenyan Women

The Care2 Trailblazers blogging team has been closely following this year’s Echoing Green awards. Although not a finalist, we are big fans of Akili Dada and founder Dr. Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg, a professor at the University of San Francisco who splits her time between San Francisco, California and Nairobi, Kenya. Dr. Kamau-Rutenberg moved from Nairobi, Kenya to Denver, Colorado at the age of fourteen. She founded Akili Dada in 2005 to pave the road for other young Kenyan women with the belief that “leadership is not accidental but rather it must be nurtured with intention and purpose.”

Akili Dada, a women-led organization, believes that Africa’s next generation of leaders should include women from diverse economic backgrounds. Currently, very few Kenyan women hold top management positions in the country’s public and private sectors. Access to education is an important factor. However, while public school is free and therefore accessible to many girls, secondary school fees makes it out of reach for most Kenyan families. As a result, brilliant young women drop out of school, and enter early marriages and the low-wage work force.

Akili Dada addresses these inequalities and empowers exceptional young Kenyan women by providing them with secondary school scholarships, leadership training, and mentors – some of whom are Akili Dada alumni. This year alone, Akili Dada is supporting forty young women. Akili Dada’s reach extends even beyond the secondary school years. An impressive one hundred percent of Akili Dada Scholars have received full scholarships to universities around the world!

Akili Dada Scholars and alumni are a part of a growing network of Kenyan women scholars. To support their work visit the Akili Dada website.

photo credit: from Flickr via jschinker

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Hanan W.

4:12AM PDT on May 27, 2011

Wishing you lots of success!

send a green star

Jo A.

12:36AM PDT on May 25, 2011

Bravo Akili Dada! Go Girls! All the best for you!

John S.

9:46AM PDT on May 18, 2011

Way to go!

Calvin O.

2:20AM PDT on Apr 25, 2011

Alutta continua

Debi C.

10:52AM PDT on Apr 23, 2011

Very cool article, thank you!

Vera Y.

2:02AM PDT on Apr 23, 2011

great story, great women!

Marianne G.

6:48AM PDT on Apr 22, 2011

Thanks for shairng

Flora W.

4:34AM PDT on Apr 22, 2011

What an amazing woman!

Patrick C.

3:49AM PDT on Apr 22, 2011

ça me réjouit le coeur, c'est par l'éducation ( et surtout l'éducation des filles ) que la pauvreté sera vaincue. Merci de m'informer de ce généreux programme

gerlinde p.

11:05PM PDT on Apr 21, 2011

a great job akili dada!