When Purity Mathe conceived her first child at 19 years of age, her worst fears were confirmed. It was obvious that she would not pursue her education dreams because marriage came calling.

Mathe, now 45 years old, narrates how her journey in young parenthood taught her a lesson she is proud of today.

She says , were it not for her determination in life, she would have ended as a careless woman.

But as she narrates, Buoyed by her passion to read, Mathe was able to graduate as a primary school teacher after completing her studies at the Shanzu teachers college.

It is through her early pregnancy and marriage experience that opened her eyes about the plight of girl child.

During her time many girls abandoned education to get married while others lacked school fees to secure their higher education and their dreams remained just a wishful dream.

This situation touched her heart and vowed to make a change in the society.

"When I conceived at 19 years of age and got married, I knew I was finished, I knew I would not achieve my dreams, but something kept telling me that I can still make it in life despite the situation am in, I decided I will not accept to be derailed by being a young mother. I went to college after giving birth and graduated as a teacher,"narates Mathe.

Adding “I was later divorced and ended up bringing up my kids alone and I always feel like I wasn't mature enough to learn what I really wanted , that brought alot of weight in advocating education to girls.

Since then, Mathe became a girl child rights champion. Her work is evident as very many girls have attained their life dreams of education through her hands.

She says through the help of an American founded non governmental organization she has been able to uplift girl child education in the society.

Mathe is a girl power coordinator for the Mombasa relief initiative MRI,an American based organisation which was formed in 1992 by an American but it operates its activities in Mombasa county.

"I work for the girl power programe which consists of Victoria baptist and Mnazi Mmoja primary schools, where she handles several girls aged between 10-17 years. I have been catering for their fees and few basic needs they needs like sanitary towels and food stuffs for their families." said Mathe.

Her passion to uplift girl child was inspired by the fact that majority of girl children in the coastal region don't realize their life dreams due to abject poverty as the majority of the children are orphans while others from less fortunate families.

"Many girls in the coast don't join high school because most of them don't have dreams of joining high  schools because the children undergo challenges of food in their families that makes them drop out of schools because of poverty, this is where we come in and seal the gap," she says.

She says the Organisation has been instrumental in dealing with girl child in the informal settlement schools and those orphaned in Mombasa and says their dreams get realized when they join high schools and universities.

"Since the programme no girl among those I deal with has ever encountered challenges like teenage pregnancy, we take care of them from their primary level up to secondary level." she says.

Her mission is to see the organisation spread its wings to Kilifi and other coastal counties to rescue the girl child from the hooks of social vices.

So far  she is handling a total of 54 needy children with 30 in primary school and 24 in secondary schools in Mombasa.

"We want to spread our wings to Nairobi and other parts of the country so that we can reach the most vulnerable girl child," said Mathe who now throws a challenge to the government to put more focus on girl child education.

The Mombasa Relief Initiative (MRI) was conceived based on the collective vision of seven Americans and two Kenyans who wanted to find a uniform way to provide help and assistance to the children of Mombasa, Kenya.

Beginning in 1993, these individuals started going to Kenya on vacation to buy art for sale in the U.S. These trips grew into a great love for the people and culture of Kenya. Eventually, in March 2001, they formed MRI, a non-profit organization.

MRI’s mission is to serve the children of Mombasa, Kenya through three key initiatives: Health, Education and Economic Empowerment.