@youth-and-urbanism.bsky.socialGeorge Otim closed the launch with four asks: listen to girls, trust them, invest in them, share power with them. We bring Mathare's evidence, a youth response team and storytellers. Read it, then act.
@planusa.bsky.social
Day of the Girl 2023 took us to Copenhagen with PlanBørnefonden. This week I sat in Westlands hearing 5,000 girls' answers. In between, years of work alongside Plan Kenya.
@youth-and-urbanism.bsky.socialOur road with Plan didn't start this week: Nairobi youth climate advocates before COP27, Safe and Inclusive Cities work with Plan Kenya, Day of the Girl 2023 in Copenhagen. This week, volunteer storytellers.
Good to see Mathare on Plan Kenya's impact sheet: young people in Kibera and Mathare who know how to reach health services went from 62% to 84%. That is what steady, local work looks like.
@youth-and-urbanism.bsky.socialPlan International Kenya reached 184,638 people in FY26, 66,543 of them girls. In Kibera and Mathare, young people who know how to reach health services rose from 62% to 84%. Local work, local results.
In April 2024 our young responders reached flooded Mathare before government teams did. In 2026 a ward climate committee near us had one woman out of six. Girls asked for a seat at the table. They have earned it.
@youth-and-urbanism.bsky.social39% of girls want their ideas heard after climate shocks; 34% want leadership training. In Mathare a ward climate committee had 1 woman in 6, and flood warnings reached women last. Put girls in the room.
@planusa.bsky.social
@youth-and-urbanism.bsky.socialInternational Day of the Girl. Across fourteen sessions our SRHR Girls Outreach in Mathare carried rights alongside climate and care, and surfaced how constrained the girls' own aspirations are. Girls design this work with us. #ClimateAndCare4Her #YouthAndUrbanism
The number that should embarrass all of us: 0.5% of multilateral climate funding supports health, and girls' reproductive health is a sliver of that. Climate money that can't show what reached girls wasn't planned for girls.
@youth-and-urbanism.bsky.social6% of adaptation funding and 0.5% of multilateral climate funding supports health. Aid fell 23% in 2025. Ring-fence a share for girls' health, and send it through local, girl-led groups.
If I could underline one line in the report: school is the most stable protection a girl has. After the 2024 floods in Mathare some children never went back. We still don't have a count. That has to change.
@youth-and-urbanism.bsky.socialGirls whose schooling is disrupted are twice as likely to marry before 18 or face unintended pregnancy. After Mathare's 2024 floods, schools went under and children went to work. Track every girl who doesn't return.
A public toilet in Mathare costs KSh 20. Pads cost money. When floods take a family's income, girls carry the bill, sometimes with their bodies. The report calls it sexual exploitation. It is the right word.
@youth-and-urbanism.bsky.social28% of girls saw more gender-based violence after climate shocks, much of it tied to sexual exploitation. In Mathare a toilet costs KSh 20 and pads cost money. Budget for both in every flood plan.
@planusa.bsky.social
In northern Kenya, drought kills the herd and a daughter's bride price becomes the family's last asset. In Mathare there is no herd, just rent and floods. The pressure on girls to marry looks different. It is the same pressure.
@youth-and-urbanism.bsky.social36% of girls saw more child marriage after climate shocks, 60% where drought hit. In the drylands the trigger is a dead herd. In Mathare it is a lost livelihood after floods. Same pressure, different market.
A finding I keep coming back to: 76% of girls see more peers unable to reach sexual and reproductive health services after climate shocks. In Mathare, when floods cut off the clinic, the three-month injection simply lapses.
@youth-and-urbanism.bsky.social76% of girls in Change Her Forecast see peers struggling to reach SRH services. In Mathare, floods cut off clinics and contraceptive injections lapsed. Pads and contraception belong in every disaster kit.
Nine in ten girls told Plan International that climate events are straining their homes. In Mathare I see where the strain goes. To girls. Minding siblings after the floods, hours in the water queue, school days lost.
@youth-and-urbanism.bsky.social9 in 10 girls in Change Her Forecast say climate events strain their household's survival. In Mathare that strain lands on girls: sibling care after the 2024 floods, and 2 to 5 hours in the water queue.
@planusa.bsky.social
