By Zara Bott-Goins | Executive Director
Dear Friends,
Thanks to you 2015 is off to a fantastic start! In 2014, MGEF sent 110 Maasai girls to school--more than any year to date. One quarter of these students are in primary school; another quarter are in secondary school; and nearly fifty percent are now enrolled in or soon to enter universities, colleges, and vocational schools. With so many students reaching higher levels of education than they ever dreamed possible, MGEF's founding vision is now a reality. Ten young Maasai women, MGEF scholars, graduated this year from colleges and universities, and they enter a workforce previously unattainable to them as independent, strong, confident women. Additionally, we are excited to welcome ten new students to our roster this year! All MGEF students are back to school and working hard to complete their first term of 2015.
MGEF's Community Education Programs also remain strong. In 2014 alone our workshops reached over 2,000 Maasai girls, boys, women, and men as we work to eliminate the barriers to education that threaten Maasai girls in Kenya. In our Elders and Mothers Workshops, and in Life Skills Workshops for girls and boys, we encourage participants to reject child marriage and female genital mutilation, and we teach girls how to protect themselves from pregnancy and HIV. We have already completed four workshops this year and look forward to reaching more communities throughout 2015.
Additionally, MGEF continues to conduct Women's Business Training Workshops and provided seed grants and financial literacy training to 120 rural Maasai women in 2014. As a result, 40 new women's small businesses were founded, securing greater financial independence for Maasai women and their families. We have many more trainings scheduled in 2015 to reach an even greater number of women.
On behalf of the Maasai community, all of us at the Maasai Girls Education Fund would like to express our gratitude to you. Thanks to your generosity, our programs continue to grow, and young women's lives change course for the better as they become, in the proud words of our Founder, Barbara Lee Shaw, "living proof of a universal truth: Educating women is the single most effective way to improve their lives and the well-being of their communities."
Thank you for making a difference.
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