Betty’s story

Watch Betty’s story from Nairobi, Kenya

Betty, a young woman with a dark skin tone, turns around and poses for the photo while walking down a dirt path. She is wearing a striped yellow shirt, a black backpack, and has dyed pink hair.

Meet Betty, a young woman from Nairobi, Kenya. In her community, girls with disabilities often lack access to education and face stigma and insufficient support when they do attend school.

The Action Foundation (Opens in a new tab), a community-driven organization supported by the Girls Opportunity Alliance, works to remove barriers to education for girls with disabilities in Kenya by providing access to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education and mentorships.

Betty reflected, “In school, I had to hide my disability to take STEM classes. After graduation, I was still denied jobs even though I was qualified. The Action Foundation changed everything for me.” 

Betty is now a mentor at the Action Foundation, helping to empower girls with disabilities by teaching them about STEM—including how to build robots. 

“The Action Foundation sees me for who I am. They see that I am exceptional and so are the young women I work with every day,” she shared.“Together, we are working to change the narrative around girls with disabilities because we all deserve the opportunity to reach our full potential.”

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Michelle Obama is standing in a classroom hugging a child while smiling. Michelle Obama has a medium deep skin tone and has long curly braids of which half are pulled up and the other half a flowing down her back and shoulders. She is wearing a colorful headband, gold geometric earrings, multiple gold braclets, and a blue patterned shirt. The child she is hugging is facing opposite the camera. The child has closely cut dark hair and is wearing a white t-shirt.

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