This is the encouraging, important, and heartwarming story of Caroline and Scolastica Epokor, twin sisters from a family of Turkana pastoralists who have both progressed through primary, secondary and finally to tertiary education. Caroline is about to graduate with a BSc in Agriculture and Human Ecology at Egerton University, and Scolastica is about to graduate from Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology with a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Statistics. To get this far they have overcome a lack of money which delayed their progress, with tribal conflicts which interfered with the programmes, and with community expectations of girls. They benefitted from parental support and from the funding made available through the programmes we support.
The success of these two young women is important, not just for them but also for their community. As Scolastica says, ‘Girls in my community are seen as a property and most of the time they undergo suffering because they are denied their rights. Through education they can fight for their rights and save other young girls who are also suffering in the community.’
Caroline stresses that in their community ‘educating a girl child has been a great challenge since time immemorial because the community value girls a lot. Marrying them off is a plus to the clan members because they receive a lot of bride prize during courtship period and the entire marriage life of a girl. Members of the community therefore consider taking girls to school as a loss to the whole clan and the society as a whole.’
Against this background, the impact of two women graduates is clearly significant. As Caroline puts it, ‘Since I gained more knowledge and skills in my field of specialization, I am certain that through one way or the other I will help the society by changing their attitude towards educating a girl child. I am sure being able to reach this far I believe I have the strength to give hope to young girls in my community and I am certain that this is a challenge to the members of the society, and they can now allow girls to go to school because there’s no development without gender equality. So, I believe that with many girls going to school we will attain gender parity and reduce the gender gap in access to education amongst the pastoralist communities in Kenya.’
Both sisters contrast the opportunities which now await them with the life they were likely to live had they not progressed through education – one of ‘staying in the village married to an old man and living a pathetic life.’
The tertiary education funds for Scolastica and Caroline, and several other young women were raised by a charity in Spain with whom we have shared goals and objectives. An NGO in German has agreed to support the two students beginning college in late 2024, and another six who will graduate high school at the end of the subsequent school year, starting college or university in September 2025 (assuming they get at least a C+ in their final exams). In the UK we are trying to raise funds for a number of education programmes for Turkana students including our Primary School in Todonyang as well as a number of programmes that support primary and secondary education of young men and women. If you can help support the Todonyang primary we would be most grateful. It costs, after parental contributions £265 to support a child at the school. 115 boys and 98 girls attend the boarding school. Click here to donate.
We’ll save the last words for Scolastica who says, ‘Education has brightened my future and I’m ready to fight for the rights of other girls who are denied the rights to education, so that they can fight for their rights and understand the importance of education in their lives.’

Caroline
