Empower Maasai Girls in Kenya

Dear Friends,

What an incredible year it has been for the Maasai Girls Education Fund! December 2019 was full of celebrations of many new graduates from various stages of their education—six from post-secondary institutions, six from primary school, and twelve from secondary school.  Most of these scholars are the first young women in their families to achieve this.  Many, as young girls, only dreamed of this day, and now it has become reality.   

MGEF ended the year with 130 students on our roster, 49 primary, 47 secondary and 34 post-secondary students. MGEF now has 83 alumnae, with 73 of these young women completing post-secondary education!

Mentoring Workshop 2019

For the second year in a row, our Annual Mentoring Workshop was facilitated entirely by MGEF alumnae.  Our Alumnae sisterhood has made it their goal to invite all our graduates over the last 20 years to mentor our younger students, engaging our new graduates as well as our older alumnae, who are now well-established empowered women working throughout Kenya. As an example, Jane, a graduate from 2011 who is a dentist, spoke to our current students about what it takes to be a good leader, and the impact you can have not only on your own personal life but on others also. The mentoring workshop is a safe place for all to ask questions, solve issues, and bond with each other.  What makes MGEF special is the feeling of family that is encouraged among the staff, alumnae and current students.  There is no problem too great or small to bring forward for all to share.

MGEF was also fortunate at this year’s Mentoring Workshop to have our friend Chief Felix come and speak and encourage the girls to continue their academic journey.  Felix is a prominent chief in the Namanga division of Kajiado County.  Earlier this year he brought MGEF a young girl who was from his area that was unable to go to school due to lack of school fees.  He was so touched by our acceptance of this young woman and what MGEF does that he and his family donated five acres of land to MGEF.  In the future, we would like to utilize this great gift to establish a rural community outreach center and bring us even closer to those in need.  

Life Skills Workshops 2019

In 2019 MGEF received a grant to conduct 26 Life Skills Workshops (LSWs).  The Workshops were held in the Namanga Division of Kajiado County, and are conducted for Maasai girls and boys, as well as men and women, throughout Maasai communities in Kajiado County to address the social customs and cultural beliefs that prevent Maasai girls from getting an education.  They present information and teach participants about barriers to education among the Maasai, including traditional cultural practices such as female genital cutting (FGC), forced marriage and early pregnancy. To date, 16,273 Maasai girls, boys, women and men have attended MGEF’s Life Skills Workshops. 

The LSW’s truly give us insights into the landscape of what is happening in the heart of the Maasai people we serve in Kenya, and these insights help us craft our future plans to best fit Maasai girls’ needs.  We have discovered, for example, that there has been much progress in attitudes about girls’ education in Maasai communities nearer more urban areas, but affordability still remains an insurmountable obstacle to education for too many.  The further out into the bush we go, however, the more FGM and early marriage is practiced for tradition’s sake.  This is why our Life Skills Workshops are so critical, and underscores the need for increased rural outreach.

MGEF-Kajiado Kenyan Board is growing

MGEF-Kajiado has always had a Board of Directors, Maasai women that serve as advisors with all of our programs.  They play a crucial role in our selection process for new scholarships, and their approval is the first step to being accepted into MGEF.  When there is a girl in need of rescue or school fees, they go to the board member of their local division—an empowered educated Maasai woman from her local community—more often than not, a teacher. Once the board member meets with the applicant and helps them fill out an application, her application is forwarded to the MGEF Kajiado staff and, finally, the US Executive Director.  Until recently there has been only one board member from each division. The MGEF alumnae, however, decided that the best, most impactful way they could remain involved with and give back to MGEF was to start becoming board members themselves. This December the Kajiado Board revised its by-laws to include two board members per division and welcomed seven new MGEF alumnae as junior board members! Everyone is so excited to have them aboard.  They have many new and exciting ideas and are full of energy to get started.   

New Scholars

In Kenya, the school year starts in January.  Therefore, every January we try to add as many girls as we think we might be able to find sponsors for—this year we are picking up 8! Choosing new scholars is an exciting and rewarding experience, but also very difficult.  MGEF receives so many applications and daily visits at the office from desperate girls and their parents that it is impossible to accept them all, and we try very hard to find the most needy of the students among them, the girls who without our help would have absolutely no chance of going to school.  The new junior board members were very excited to become a part of this process, and worked closely with their senior board members to pick the recipients of the 2020 MGEF scholarships in their divisions.  

With the eight new girls added this January, MGEF started 2020 with 136 active students.  Our roster consists of 47 primary, 46 secondary, 32 post-secondary students, with 12 pending post-secondary awaiting acceptance to various institutions of higher education.  Most pending post-secondary students are busy taking computer classes to prepare themselves for their future academic pursuits.

On behalf of the Maasai Community and the Maasai Girls Education Fund, I would like to thank our many supporters, both individuals and foundations. Your generous support and commitment to Maasai Girls education is critical to our success and to the continued success of our students. 

With much gratitude,

Heather McKay