Giving Compass' Take:

• Global Citizen tells the story of Adhiambo, a Kenyan woman who survived polio and struggled to survive, until she was given educational opportunities.

• What is being done to expand equal access to education for women and girls around the world? How might this story serve as inspiration to redouble our efforts in this area?

• Learn more about gender equality in this Giving Compass guide. 

Adhiambo, from Kenya, has already survived more than any teenager should have to.

When she was a baby she contracted polio and, while she survived, she was left with a severe physical disability.

According to Adhiambo, who told her story to the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID), it used to be “so painful that I would cry every time someone tried to carry me.”

“So most of the time I was lying down because that was most comfortable,” she continued. “It was hard to see other children run and play, and yet all I could do was sit and watch.”

Adhiambo’s parents died when she was still very young, and so she went to live with her aunt.

“I couldn’t ask her to send me to school, because there was no money and she was struggling to send her own kids to school,” she said. “So I just sat.”

Read the full article about education for girls by Imogen Calderwood at Global Citizen.