Kenya is a country in Eastern Africa with a population of over 53 million people. Nearly 9 million of these people live in a state of extreme poverty. This means that they have less that 2 US dollars per day to live on. Nearly 8 million Kenyans do not have enough food to sustain themselves on a daily basis.

Recent trends are encouraging and indicate that poverty rates are dropping in Kenya, but there is still much work to be done. Because of this extreme poverty, families a faced with the choice to put their kids to work to earn money for food versus possibly sending them to school. Culturally, girls are viewed as less valuable and are therefore not the priority for education. An additional challenge is the family’s view that girls should be married off to become someone else’s financial responsibility. Both of these cultural viewpoints have led to lower education rates among girls. This has provided Every Girl Counts the opportunity to bridge that gap and work with families, educate girls, and share Jesus.