ARTICLE HELPS REVEAL SCHEME

By Sheila Ngigi

Since 1992, Nasaru Ntoyie women’s group has worked to ensure girls are saved from forced marriages and their thirst for education quenched. Though an up heal task, they have been very successful and have given hope to so many. Under the close supervision and leadership of Peninah Nasieku Tompo among others, as highlighted in an earlier article, the women sell their hand made beadwork from which funds go a long way to educate and accommodate the rescued girls.

Peninah attending to customers during one of their exhibitions

However, it was after the article was posted on this blog, when an ongoing scheme by callous individuals was discovered. It was established that there were numerous people masquerading either as Nasaru Ntoyie’s partners, volunteers, or employees on the web for a long time now. They had been using the group as a means to get funding and donations from individuals, organizations and other development agencies.

“I had gone to the Maarifa center to read the article on Nasaru Ntoyie which had been posted on the Isinya Maarifa Center blog on the 11^th of May this year. However, on keying in the name Nasaru, I was faced with very many options which appeared after I searched. So I sought assistance from the Field officer who discovered that the options were from other people and not the original Nasaru Ntoyie’s members,” says Naomi, one of the beneficiaries of the group’s girl education project.

Some members of Nasaru Ntoyie

Nasaru Ntoyie Women’s group has since then sought professional advice and assistance. In that light, they were advised to create a blog which they have done with help from the Isinya Maarifa Center. Their link is: www.nasaruntoyie.blogspot.com.

This is before their website is completed and plans to patent their name are underway.

"We are very grateful to the Isinya Maarifa center and ALIN for their support, assistance and provision of access to internet at the community center. Were it not for the article that profiled our group, we would never have been able to save our group", Naomi says with a smile.