2007

December 2007 Letter from the Dircetor
MGEF Executive Director Barbara Lee Shaw shares the story of Simantoi Kilama, demonstrating the impact that educating women can have on poverty.

June 2007 Letter from the Director
MGEF Executive Director Barbara Lee Shaw provides an update on progress torwards MGEF's goal of get girls in school and to keep them there until they have the knowledge and skills to get a job in Kenya.

2006

June 2006 Letter from the Director
MGEF Executive Director Barbara Lee Shaw reports on the Fund's activities during 2006, including launching two successful Community Education Programs; providing scholarships to eight new students; hosting a reception for Wangari Maathai, the 2004 Nobel Peace Laureate; and completing a short film about MGEF.

Fund Executive Director Discusses New Initiatives at MGEF
In a recent interview with The Women's Edge Coalition, MGEF Executive Director Barbara Lee Shaw discusses MGEF's approach to educating girls and the Fund's new initiatives.

2005

December 2005 Letter from the Director
MGEF Executive Director Barbara Lee Shaw reports on the Fund's Progress during 2005.

MGEF Becomes Member of the Combined Federal Campaign (#9981)
In August 2005, MGEF became a member of the Aid to Africa Federation of the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC).   

"Schoolgirl Mum"
One of MGEF's strategies to succeed in educating a generation of Maasai women is "keeping them in school."  Sometimes this requires early-marriage intervention; sometimes it requires medical intervention, sometimes counseling. 

There are many factors that prevent Maasai girls from completing their education, including early marriages, teen pregnancy, poverty, cultural attitudes, distance to schools, and HIV/AIDS, which leave orphans, and young girls are often required to drop out of school to care for ailing parents and younger siblings.  

This year we encountered "teen pregnancy" for the first time.  Miriam Senja, a 7th grade student who escaped marriage in January 2002 with an MGEF scholarship, became pregnant last spring, but kept it a secret until the end of the school year in November 2004.  Her greatest fear was that she would not be able to complete her education.   Miriam is fortunate to have understanding sponsors who offered to do whatever was best for Miriam.  Her baby girl was born in January, but she had not given up her dream to become a doctor. 

MGEF transferred Miriam to Olkiramatien Girls Primary Boarding School in Magadi, a school near to her home so that she would be able to see her baby more often, and her mother agreed to take care of the baby while she attends school.  Miriam started back to school at the beginning of the second term in May.   In April, The Daily Nation in Nairobi published Miriam's story, "Schoolgirl Mum,"  in which Miriam talks about her experience.  The article, which you may access through the link above, offers some insight into the lives of rural Maasai girls. I will be returning to Kenya in July and hope to meet Miriam's new baby when all of the students come to MGEF's annual reception in Kajiado.  Thanks to Miriam's sponsors, the MGEF team in Kajiado, and Miriam's determination, she may someday realize her dream to become a doctor.

2004

MGEF Annual Report 2004
MGEF's 2004 Annual Report details the Fund's activities to educate a generation of Maasai women.

October 2004 Letter from the Director
MGEF Executive Director Barbara Lee Shaw reports on the Fund's Progress during 2004.

March 2004 Letter from the Director
MGEF Executive Director Barbara Lee Shaw reports on the Fund's activities during the first three months of 2004.

2003

December 2003 Letter from the Director
MGEF Executive Director Barbara Lee Shaw reports on the Fund's Progress during 2003.

April 2003 Letter from the Director
MGEF Executive Director Barbara Lee Shaw presents hightlights from the first two years of MGEF