Most Vulnerable Paying the Price for Logging
Even with two grades to go before completing high school, Vincent Kiptum has already figured out how to deal with a problem troubling his village in Kenya’s Rift Valley: truancy from school.
Once he graduates, Kiptum would like to be the Olenguruone village champion tasked with ensuring that youth enlist in school and remain there until they have a certificate to show.
But such a job will require a mix of strength and intellect if the 18 year old hopes to outwit the triple plagues suffered by the area’s marginalized communities: poverty, displacement, and exploitation by the logging industry.
His target is Olenguruone’s seven to 15 year olds from about 500 households displaced from the nearby forest, like his was. Most of them are not in school, having gone to work in saw mills to help support their families, he said.
Neil Turner