By Patricia Allenby | Project Leader
Osotuwa Foundation is in its fifth year of supporting Tanzanian Maasai girls in secondary school and beyond to keep them away from forced marriage. Our vision is to change the mindset of the Maasai elders to one of gender equality and valuing education for girls. This year we have 15 girls that are in their fifth year and some of them did not do well enough to continue on to Form 5 and 6 (like our junior and senior year in high school), which would lead to university. We are trying to raise support for these girls to go to college (like our community college) to gain a diploma, like in teaching or hotel mamagement that will assure them a way to support themselves. This will fulfill their dream of a future of their own choosing. We need extra funding for these 5 girls and will be sponosring other fundraisers in the next two months.
One fifith year girl who came to us with her mother 4.5 years ago is now pregnant and being forced to marry - this is a very sad ending to her story. Even though we help the girls, the risk of them being forced by their family into marriage is very real. Please see the section about CHANGING CULTURAL NORMS in our most reent Newsletter: https://www.osotuwa.org/_files/ugd/433a2e_038f50bd9ecc45e39a27eb4177ae0178.pdf.
We celebrated a huge success this past May in holding a fundraising Tanzanian Dinner which raised over $16,000! This is enough to keep all of our current unsponsored girls in school for next year. The attached photos show our wonderful turnout with great food and information sharing by Isaya Oleporuo, our founder, and others who have experienced the program first hand.
There are more than 100 girls (last photo) who are coming to us for help to enter secondary school in 2027 and we hope for additional funds to support some of these girls also. The more that we can do for the girls encourages the parents and elders when they see the how these girls blossom into confident, young women with an education.
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