in the beginning

Yang'at was started by four University educated Pokot women who were aware that there were very few Pokot women pursuing higher education in Kenya.  These four friends  thought there was something more that they could do to encourage education - so they started to visit schools in West Pokot, encouraging girls to stay in school and achieve their dreams through education.  Through speaking at these schools, these women realized that more girls would be in school if they were not subject to FGM (female genital mutiliation) and early forced marriage.  These four women started to find school sponsorship for rescued girls, and their reputation for valuing the girl child in this region of Kenya began to grow.  Yang'at was born from this vision of a few friends wanting to make a difference in their home community.  The current Director of Yang'at, Deborah Katina, was one of these orginal four founding members. 

We found Yang'at through our colleague, friend and classmate, Pini Chepkoech, who is also native to West Pokot.  Her family and friends have helped us to make this community home, and we hope to continue the important work of empowering girls and women through our research for Jitokeze (swahili for Emerge).