By Keturah Shammah | Executive Director
Dear Partner,
In July 2026, Girls Education Mission International clocked 15 years of believing in girls, walking with communities, learning, growing, making mistakes, starting again and discovering what is possible when people choose to invest in the education and potential of a girl.
But whenever we celebrate this milestone, our minds go back to where it all began with the first 10 girls. It was a time when we started with nothing but with simply passion seeing girls who needed an opportunity and decided to do what we could with what we had. Those 10 girls became the beginning of something we could not fully imagine at the time.
Fifteen years later, those girls are no longer girls. They have grown into women. They have completed different stages of their lives and careers, pursued their education, built careers and businesses, started families, married, taken on responsibilities and continued to write their own stories. Their journeys have taken different directions, but together they remain one of the most beautiful reminders of why GEM exists.
And one of the most beautiful moments of our 15th anniversary year is that 3 of our first 10 girls got married this year. And with their marriages, all 10 of the girls who started this journey with GEM are now married.
We watched them grow from girls whose education and futures were once uncertain into women making decisions about their own lives, families, careers and communities. To witness this chapter of their lives 15 years after we first met them is something we do not take for granted.
For us, their success is not simply a collection of individual achievements. It is evidence of what can happen when a girl is given a chance. These are girls who once needed help to remain in school and are now professionals, entrepreneurs and women building their own families and futures. Girls who once needed someone to believe in them are now becoming women who can create opportunities for others. Girls whose futures once seemed uncertain are now making choices about the lives they want to build.
And this is where you come into the story.
The progress of those 10 girls is also part of your story, because you stood with GEM over the years and became part of this journey. Your generosity has helped us continue this work even when the resources available to us were far smaller than the needs around us.
When we celebrate a girl who stayed in school, a graduate who found her path, a young woman who launched an initiative, or a former GEM girl who now gives back, we see your investment in that story too.
You may not have met all the girls whose lives your giving has touched. You may never know every classroom, family or community that has benefited from your generosity. But the impact is there in the possibilities that opened, the choices that became available and the lives that have continued to grow. That is why our 15th anniversary is not just a celebration of GEM. It is a celebration of everyone who has helped make this journey possible.
And now, as we look ahead, we are inviting you to help us write the next chapter through #Give15Gain15 anniversary fundraising campaign.
Our 15th anniversary campaign has a goal of raising $15,000. The idea is simple: Give $15 and help us gain another opportunity to have another girl kept in school, another dream given room to grow, another young woman equipped to lead and another story that we can celebrate years from now.
Fifteen years ago, we started with 10 girls and very little else. Today, we have the privilege of looking back and seeing women whose lives have taken shape in ways we could only have hoped for.
For us, that is progress, and that progress belongs to you too.
Thank you for believing in girls. Thank you for believing in Girls Education Mission International. Thank you for giving, sharing, encouraging and standing with us through the years.
Most of all, thank you for helping turn what began with 10 girls into a 15-year story of possibility, growth and impact.
As we enter the next chapter, we invite you to Give$15 and help us create the next generation of stories.
With gratitude,
from all of us at
Girls Education Mission International
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