Give Life-Changing Education to 500 Maasai Girls

RAINS IN KENYA
Many of you may have read about the devastating floods that have affected Kenya since November. Because the transportation infrastructure of the Loita Hills and Naikarra regions where we work consists of dirt roads that cross many rivers without bridges, the resultant flooding has made travel nearly impossible. This makes it extremely difficult for our staff to meet with community members or for our new Team Angaza interns to go out in the field to identify and enroll out-of-school children. Our Intern Coordinator, Christine Mpoe, has slept and waited by flooded rivers until nearly 2 AM in the morning until they have become safe enough to cross in order to meet with community leaders and help us continue to make forward progress on new schools. Our Programs Manager, Josephat Mashati, and Schools Coordinator, Rebecca Ledidi, have managed to do the same. Their intrepid commitment and dedication through many challenges has allowed us to make much of the progress outlined below.

GROWING OUR TEAM ANGAZA
We began expanding our group of Team Angaza interns last October. Three of our new interns were brought on to meet gaps we have identified in the Loita Hills –– small pocket regions where we are seeing lower primary enrollment than expected. The other four interns have just undergone their first training and are now beginning to identify and enroll children into over 30 different public primary and ECD schools across Olderkesi and Nakairra, two adjoining regions we began expanding to towards the end of 2023. In the more remote areas there, families live in isolated homesteads and often, have had little exposure to formal education or to an understanding of the ways it can benefit their children and communities. Traditional practices of FGC and early marriage also remain high. We expect our work here to be a journey in which we will be learning and building upon local families and communities’ strengths to empower them to move from the known –– what they already know and do well –– to the unknown of new ideas and information about education and health. We will both be learning and look forward to the opportunity to be able to make a significant impact in this historically underserved region.

MORE NEW HIGH SCHOOLS AND CLASSROOMS!
Just before the severe rains hit southern Kenya, we were able to celebrate the opening of several new classrooms at a third new day secondary school. The communities of Enairebuk and Olorte began fundraising for the first classrooms of their new school in August, 2023. By the following month, they had collectively sold enough goats and sheep to reach their fundraising goal, which we then matched 100%. The community used the collective funds to build the first two classrooms of the new Enairebuk Day Secondary School in September and held a public ceremony to celebrate their completion at the end of October. Nearly 1000 people attended, dressed in their finest Maasai jewelry and shukas. The first cohort of students began studying in these classrooms when the new school term began several weeks ago, and nearly 40 are now enrolled.

Each of our new secondary schools in Kenya are the result of 50-50% partnerships we create with existing primary schools and local communities: The community sets a goal to collectively fundraise for, and then we match their efforts 100%, offering additional support to communities experiencing extra hardships. 

OUR GRATITUDE:
Our ability to match the hard work of these communities is truly only possible thanks to the generosity of you, the people who support our work. Thank you for being part of the global community that makes these schools possible through your generosity and caring. We always wish we could transport each and every one of you to Kenya so you could experience for yourself the difference your caring has made in countless lives. Since that isn’t possible, we are sharing a small album of photos from our recent trip through the link below. Asante sana, as always, from the bottom of our hearts for helping us change the trajectory of so many young lives across the globe.

Links:

• FALL 2023: KENYA PHOTO ALBUM

Since we began our work in Kenya’s Loita Hills four years ago, we have been continually humbled by the way communities come together on behalf of their children time and again. Every accomplishment of our organization in this remote, rural region has truly been thanks to the effort of countless others. Each inch of progress has been powered by your generosity as well as by the grit, persistence and vision of our staff and interns and the headteachers, parents and leaders in the villages where we work.

Over the past year, we watched Mausa, one of the most isolated and struggling communities we work with, raise 1.5 million Kenya shillings –– the equivalent of $12,000 USD, an enormous amount for a rural village, to help build a secondary school amidst a severe drought. We also swelled with pride as three of our new Team Angaza interns –– Anne, Emily and Naserian, opened preschools in their villages. Each did so on their own initiative after observing the large numbers of children in their respective communities who were too small to safely walk 5-10 KM to the nearest government ECD (early childhood development center). We’ve been humbled after learning that many of these same interns and also our staff –– nearly all young mothers themselves ––­­ often pay the school fees of other young girls in their villages when they see their own mothers struggling to feed them, all so they can stay in school.

One of the more beautiful aspects of Maasai culture is the high value placed on communal wellbeing, and the countless ways women help each other in the absence of an official social safety net. “As Maasai women, we have gone through many difficult things,” explains Christine Mpoe, our Intern Coordinator. “Our own struggles allow us to open [our] hearts and share to help others. When I see someone in trouble, my heart will not be in peace. They –– the girls we help –– will eventually be the light I wish to see in Maasai land. I am hoping that later, they will likewise help others.”

You can read more about the many inspiring ways that communities came together for each other and partnered with us to create change for girls in Kenya last year in our 2022 Annual Report, coming out at the end of this month. Our 2022 report, and all other past annual reports, can be found through this link.Thank you, as always, for being the generous engine that powers this work.

Links:

• For the Good 2022 Annual Report
• Learn more about our life-changing programs in Kenya