Meet Sally Musonye an engineer at Kenya Power in Kitui County and the founder of Ash Gold Africa Initiative.
The focus of the initiative is on mentorship, public speaking, community engagement and partnerships in fostering women empowerment.
She aims to inspire girls to pursue STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) subjects and establish their career path while building self-confidence.
She aspires to create a network of mid-level career professionals who will make a contribution in addressing the existing gender gaps, stereotyping while providing a platform to network, interact and inspire the future generations.
Our paths cross on last Saturday, 3rd July 2021 when she planned to visit Kyeni Girls Secondary School, Kathungu in Kitui Rural for one main reason; to inspire the next generation of girls.She emphasizes the importance of professional membership and service besides daily duties.
On this warm day, she has partnered with the IEEE Humanitarian Activities Committee (HAC) for a COVID-19 relief ELIMUSAFE project.
As an active volunteer in the Kenya Section, Sally saw an opportunity to transform lives of the girls in Kitui.One particular day as she was going about her duties, she served this particular customer.
She was touched by her love, good cheer and pride for her students. This customer was Mrs. Rose Kioko, the principal of Kyeni Girls.
Co-incidentally, she passed by the school days later in search for a needy school that would need a boost in aligning with the government directive for combatting COVID-19.
The school has a reliable source of water, however, the hand washing stations allowed for too much contact.
Through IEEE HAC and together with other members of the institution, they had secured a funding for a project in rural Kenya to provide a solution that aligned with the mission statement, “Advancing Technology for the Benefit of Humanity.”
This was the genesis of the Saturday’s meeting that culminated in the ELIMUSAFE project success.
IEEE HAC supported the school with 6 foot-operated hand washing stations, 200 pieces of re-usable face masks, soap making ingredients and training for an equivalent of more than 100litres.
We appreciate the other partners who came on board, IEEE Kenya Section, IEEE JKUAT students, Safaricom Ltd, AshGold Africa, Queenengineers magazine and African Cotton Industries.
We donated more than 1,000 pieces of sanitary towels, infra-red thermometer, pens and bags to the girls.
The success of the day was made possible by the 11 teachers and school board, 13 mentors and the 157 students of Kyeni Girls Kathungu. Indeed, we can all create an impact in society through small tangible contributions in making the life of the other person better today.
