27th Oct 2014 To show support and in response to the call of duty, Cord leader Raila Odinga’s wife, Ida, has launched a support programme for girl’s education and the less fortunate and vulnerable children in Busia county, Kenya.
Ida who has been a champion for female rights in Kenya for more than two decades now, is a teacher by profession and this probably explains why she is passionate about education of children, particularly the disadvantaged and teenage girls who are vulnerable. She established a women’s voting league in 1991 and became well known for her outspokenness during her country’s one-party regime.
Her recent support programme which held at St Joseph’s Busia Girls Primary School grounds was attended by governors’ wives and women from different walks of life that came to show support. Ida Odinga said her office will distribute more than one hundred thousand sanitary pads, shoes, writing materials and snacks to school girls in the county. According to her, “Universal education is a pillar to great development in every sector of the economy as enshrined in the constitution under the chapter on human rights. This calls for concerted efforts in promoting education standards in the county right from early childhood education through primary, secondary to tertiary level”.
Ida who is also one of the first women to head a major corporation in Kenya has been known to say “It’s good to be a wife, but it’s good to be an educated wife. Being a wife, it’s just not a position of subordination, it’s a position of strength,” she says. “And I make my husband stronger by being strong.” Great words