Martina Achieng Ochiel’s determination has made a tremendous difference in her Kenyan village where it is common for boys to get an education, but girls are not considered worthy and can be traded for cattle and married at young ages. As a young girl Martina walked more than seven miles each day to a dilapidated primary school and sat on dirt floors to learn. Martina’s mother, Rosa Athieno, knew education would make a difference, so she labored on local farms to earn money for Martina’s schooling.
Defying great odds, Martina earned a college degree at the University of Nairobi, then returned to teach in her village and help organize literacy classes for out-of school girls. Later, Martina volunteered in her village with women and children 
affected by HIV/AIDS and founded Daima Widows and Orphans Self-Help Group. With help from the P.E.O. International Peace Scholarship Fund, Martina has earned a Ph.D. in educational policy and leadership at the University of Massachusetts.
Villages of western Kenya often have fragile economic conditions, lack of good food sources and high incidences of water borne disease because contaminated water is drawn from shallow ponds. It can take most of the day for a woman to walk several miles for clean water. Because of Martina’s moving speech at the 2009 Massachusetts State Convention about growing up in Kenya and her struggle to get an education, P.E.O. sisters in Chapters E, Concord, U, Lexington and AO, Harvard, contributed money to support her mission of improving lives in Kenya. The chapters raised money to help construct a well with a pump for her village, thus ensuring a clean water supply for an entire community.
Martina has gratefully described how the well changed the lives of women in her village and, in many ways, the entire community, significantly reducing diseases and even the death rate in children. A community garden was started, growing vegetables for families and raising money to chlorinate the well. “As P.E.O.s it is gratifying to see tangible evidence of the commitment of these IPS recipients,” stated Barbara Bach, past president, Massachusetts State Chapter. “We are positively giddy knowing that in a third world country, far removed from the comforts we enjoy, we helped to bring this village a little hope.”
Martina embodies the spirit of the P.E.O. International Peace Scholarship which promotes world peace and understanding through education; she is encouraged by the love and concern of P.E.O. friends. Supporting Martina’s efforts to improve education in Kenya, Chapter AB, Andover, Massachusetts, spearheaded an effort with the Cape Cod and Islands Reciprocity Group to collect school supplies, balls, jump ropes and books for Martina to take home. Through family connections, Chapter DR, Middleton, Ohio, sisters heard about the project and have sent 600 backpacks with educational supplies to six schools.
Christy Pappas, Chapter AB, Andover, Massachusetts, states, “Martina is an encouraging voice for hope in Kenya’s future and is an uplifting beam of light showing what P.E.O. can do by helping women achieve their educational dreams.” 
