Muhuru Bay, Kenya
The Duke Global Health Institute collaborates with Duke projects building overseas infrastructure that can serve as global health venues.
An example of this is the WISER project (Women’s Institute of Secondary Education and Research).
Teaching about puberty in Muhuru Bay, Kenya
WISER focuses on the key role educated women plan in reducing poverty and enhancing health in developing countries. Centered around a secondary school for women being built in Muhuru Bay, a region with one of Kenya’s highest HIV and malaria infection rates as well as the greatest poverty, WISER can serve as a broker between the community and a wider network of agents interested in reducing education and health disparities.
WISER emerges from a five-year relationship between Duke University, Egerton University in Kenya, and the Muhuru Bay community. At Duke University, Sherryl Broverman, a professor of Biology, Andy Cunningham, a Robertson and Truman scholar, and a team of Duke students are spearheading the project. Leading the project on the Kenyan side are Dr. Rose Odhiambo, originally from Muhuru Bay and now Director of the Institute for Women, Gender and Development Studies at Egerton University in Kenya, and a ground committee from Muhuru Bay.
During the past five years, Dr. Broverman has repeatedly traveled with Dr. Odhiambo to Muhuru Bay, her traditional village, to meet her family and learn about HIV and gender issues in the Lake Victoria region.
During the summer of 2005, Dr. Broverman was asked to develop a project that would both determine the causes of the gender gap in academic performance at Rabwao and develop interventions that could be implemented. Local education officials also raised the need for a ‘girls only’ boarding school in the area that could provide a better educational environment. Boarding schools are the norm for secondary school in Kenya; the ones for girls routinely produce higher achieving students than mixed schools.
During the summer of 2007, a DukeEngage pilot program supported Duke students for an eight-week visit to Muhuru Bay to offer health education, meet with the community in preparation for building the school, and provide other resources. WISER is on schedule to open a girls boarding school in Muhuru Bay in 2009.
For more information, visit the WISER website at www.wisergirls.org.
