Empower Maasai Girls in Kenya

Dear Friends,

MGEF has gone to space, thanks to sponsors Anna and Anil and to the Polaris Dawn Program. Anna was one of four crew members that spent five days orbiting through portions of the Van Allen radiation belt. The Polaris Dawn crew conducted research with the aim of better understanding the effects of spaceflight and space radiation on human health. Anna brought a picture of her MGEF student, Emily, and a picture of our students from last year's Mentoring Workshop along for the journey. You can imagine the excitement of Emily and our students to see their photographs in space.

January is always a very busy month at the MGEF-Kajiado office in Kenya.  It is the start of the new school year, which means the office is bustling with students coming by to get their supplies for Term 1.  MGEF’s 2025 roster starts at 169 active students this year – 47 primary and junior high students, 60 secondary, 51 Post-secondary, three vocational and eight pending post-secondary students waiting for acceptance to institutions of higher learning.   

MGEF celebrated quite a few graduations in 2024.  We had six students graduate from primary school and start junior high this year, as well as seven from secondary school who are now beginning their process of applying to post-secondary schools.  We are proud of our three students who graduated with degrees from post-secondary schools – a doctor, a nurse and a businesswoman.   We also celebrated three who graduated with their diplomas – Community Health, Nursing and Business Management.  All three diploma recipients have returned to school this year to pursue degrees in their chosen subjects.  We are always so proud of our students’ achievements; whether graduating from primary school or a university, they are often the first girl or young woman to do so in their family.  

Community Education Programs

2025 looks to be a busy year for MGEF.  Not only is our roster at an all-time high, but we will be conducting 14 Life Skills Workshops (LSWs) this year.  We will start with seven LSWs for children, which will be held at primary schools.  The boys and girls are separated into two groups, with both a male facilitator and nurse for the boys and a female facilitator and nurse for the girls.  This is done so that the children can speak more freely about sensitive subjects.  The nurses address such topics as puberty, teenage pregnancies, early marriage, HIV/AIDS, good hygiene and the negative effects of Female Genital Cutting (FGC).  The facilitators tackle the subjects of poverty, staying in school, the effects of environmental changes on their community, children’s right to an education, and that violence against children is against the law.  Questionnaires are given at the beginning and the end of each workshop to evaluate the success of each workshop. 

MGEF knows that you must address issues with not only the younger generation, but also with the adults, in order to make a change.  Therefore, we will be returning to the same villages of the children’s LSWs to conduct seven workshops for adults.  LSWs for adults are held at a local facility or school.  In the first part of the workshop, the women and men are separated just like in the children’s workshops.  The subjects discussed are the roles of each parent, the benefits of education, becoming more involved in their children’s school, how traditional customs such as FGC and early marriage contribute to poverty in the community, the value of their land and how not to be swindled.  The men and women then join together for what is usually a lively discussion of the issues they are facing and what they can do to address them.

As reported in the Fall Update letter, we revisited four cohorts of our Women’s Business Training (WBT) workshops, who had survived the pandemic and the years of severe drought.  This year we are planning to help each one expand their businesses.  One business would like to add water towers to not only help water their goat population, but also provide water for their community.  Another cohort would like to invest in a large tent and plastic chairs to cater events.  The 3rd group would like to add 20 young male sheep to their already thriving goat business and the 4th group would like to add nannies and billy goats for breeding purposes so that, eventually, they will not need to buy and fatten the goats they sell.  Each group will be responsible for a percentage of the cost in order for them to feel they have invested in themselves.  We are excited to see what these 120 very determined women will do with their expanded businesses.

This year’s Mentoring workshop held in the second week of December was a huge success.  We had the highest turnout yet, with over 150 students attending.  The three-day workshop was once again completely facilitated by the MGEF alumnae and university students.  Topics such as the challenges of adolescents, the importance of self-esteem and confidence, peer pressure, sexual education, staying in school, early marriage and climate change and how it has affected their lives.  The younger students are always very motivated to see and hear their older MGEF sister’s success stories.  It is also a time when high school students can ask the university students and alumnae questions about their fields of interest.  It was three days of learning, games and sisterhood.

It is such a wonderful feeling to watch these girls and young women reach their goals in education and to also see the women in this community work together to succeed in a business they can call their own.  

Thank you for your support.