Yang’at Community Development Organization is a local community-based non-governmental organization, formed in 1999 by a group of college educated Pokot (a local ethnic community in Kenya) women. The organization encourages Pokot girls to pursue education and other co-curricular activities that will free them from the chains of oppressive and dehumanizing ethnic and cultural traditions including: gender discrimination against girls and women, female genital mutilation (FGM), child marriages, forced marriages, rape, ignorance, negligence and wife inheritance.
Yang’at, which means “care” in the local Pokot language, broadly addresses issues of water, education, and health. It envisions communities that value all children regardless of their gender. We strive to provide improved access to services like water that will allow communities engage in economic activities and to release the girls to go to school, and give women the opportunity to engage in social economic activities that gradually improve the living standards of the general community.
To be a leading organization in promoting positive community transformation.
To empower communities through promotion of education and facilitating access to water and Health services.
To achieve its goals, YANG’AT communicates through dissemination of information concerning opportunities available to the girl child and women in general so that they can make meaningful and informed decisions to improve their lives.
YANG’AT conducts public education, rallies, school visitation workshops and seminars to disseminate information on importance of education, child rights, HIV/AIDS, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), Drug/Drug abuse and early forced marriages.
These have brought significant results. In a nutshell, the rippling effects of these interventions are that;