Empower Maasai Girls in Kenya

Dear friends,

It has been a very busy spring at the Maasai Girls Education Fund. The students started their second term in early May, after a two week spring break. The Kajiado staff was very busy welcoming the girls as they stopped by on their way to school for supplies and to present their report cards from term one. At present, MGEF has 126 scholars, 46 primary, 34 secondary and 32 post secondary with an additional 14 pending post secondary students who are waiting for their acceptances to various technical schools, colleges and universities.

Life Skills Workshops

Next week, MGEF will be conducting its second half of the Life Skills Workshops (LSWs) for 2017, with seven workshops in the Magadi division of Kenya’s Kajiado County. This area is very remote. Many of the schools consist simply of students and a teacher gathered under a tree with few supplies or books. These children are in great need of our workshops because Maasai girls in remote areas are the most vulnerable to the old, but unfortunately still practiced, traditions of female genital cutting (FGC) and early marriage. Children in these areas have had very little exposure to any other ways of life beyond the traditional Maasai culture. The futures of these girls will most likely consist of a 6^th grade education at most and marriage to a much older man with several wives in exchange for a dowry of a few cows. Life will consist of many children, manual labor and severe poverty. The LSWs in this area will help to make a dent in the traditions that put Maasai children at risk of disease, violence and poverty. The workshops, which are conducted for both boys and girls (in separate groups), inform the children of their right to an education, the physical and mental repercussions of FGC, and how early marriage perpetuates the vicious cycle of poverty. Other topics include the spread of HIV and other sexual diseases, the girls right to say no to sexual advances and the boys’ duty as strong Maasai men to stop violence towards women. MGEF has learned, through experience, that it takes one step at a time to change hundreds of years of tradition.

Women’s Business Training

As stated in our Spring Update, MGEF will be conducting the tenth cohort of its Women’s Business Training (WBT) program in July. Margaret, our Program Director, has set up the training for 30 women who are excited to start and have already begun putting together ideas for their businesses. The 30 women will attend a three-day initial workshop during which they will learn the fundamentals of running a business. They will then be broken up into six groups of five and each group will chose a business. They will put together a business plan and present this to the other five groups to obtain input and comment on the viability of each plan. Once the plan has been finalized, Margaret will then help each group buy their initial business supplies.  

The most important goal for these women is to develop a sustainable business. They must learn to reinvest and look towards the future instead of just the present. MGEF is very proud of these women. Since we started the WBT program, we have had 270 women attend and 249 still have an active business. These businesses not only help them support their families and fight against poverty, but also raise their status in the community and give them more control over their lives.

Abigael

MGEF’s alumna, Abigael, joined us as guest speaker at our 3^rd Annual Fundraiser held on June 9^th in Washington, DC. Abigael’s situation as a Maasai girl in Kenya was not unusual - she almost had to drop out of school in 6^th grade because her family couldn’t afford school fees. Her destiny changed, however, with determination, hard work and an MGEF scholarship to continue her education. Abigael went on to college and graduated from Earth University in Costa Rica with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Agricultural Science and Natural Resource Management. She recently worked with the Maa Trust in the Maasai Mara helping women learn sustainable gardening techniques and looks forward to promoting sustainable agriculture in her community.

While in the Washington DC area, MGEF and Abigael were thrilled when a local master gardener and sustainable agriculture landscaper, who has been a long time MGEF supporter, offered to spend a day with Abigael, touring several of Maryland’s most successful organic farms. Abigael was impressed to learn how these farms, both small and large, are able to be successful financially as well as highly productive, providing lessons that she can hopefully apply even in the very different Kenya climate.

Caroline

This past May, MGEF was proud to learn that another one of our students has been accepted to medical school. Caroline graduated in 2013 with a nursing degree and has been working in her hometown of Loitokitok for three years. In 2017, she decided to apply to medical school. In April, when Caroline told MGEF that she had been chosen to participate in the 2017 Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders held in New York City during the summer of 2017, we were so excited and proud. We had no idea that she would top that with her news of starting medical school in the fall. Caroline will be the future colleague of Gloria, MGEF’s first medical student to graduate as a physician in 2016. It is so exciting to see our scholarship alumni, including Abigael, Caroline and Gloria, become self-sufficient women and reach their dreams, step by step with hard work and determination.

I will close with a quote from Abigael’s speech given to more than 100 MGEF supporters who attended our DC fundraiser: “To our sponsors, who are laying the groundwork to change lives in the Maasai community and in Kenya, be reminded that what we do for ourselves, dies with us, but what we do for others and the world remain and is immortal.”

MGEF thanks all of you for your generous support!