‘Now I Am Grown I Can Stand the Hunger’: Some Reflections From Primary School Girls in Poor Areas of Kenya

Abstract

Drawing on literature which makes the links between poverty, education and gender, this paper focuses on key aspects of poverty among girls who took part in a qualitative research study which tracked them through their last three years of primary schooling in Kenya. It shows how hunger was pervasive across the four case-study areas and how this limited the girls’ ability to engage fully with their schooling. In addition, in a context where the direct costs of schooling continue to be a significant drain on household budgets, it suggests that these girls’ aspirations, for a better life through education, will remain unmet.