As we begin the New Year, MGEF invites you to read all the highlights and accomplishments from 2012. We owe our success to you, our supporters. Thank you and may you have a wonderful year in 2013!

We received an early holiday card today all the way from Costa Rica! MGEF student Abigael Simaloi Pertet is standing to the far left along with the other newly admitted African students at EARTH University. She is currently taking intensive Spanish classes, and will begin her 4-year Bachelor's degree program in Agricultural Science this January. We can't wait to see how far Abigael's education takes her!

We are pleased to announce that MGEF student, Flora Nanetia Ogeli, recently completed her coursework towards a diploma in Business Administration from the Masai Technical Training Institute. 

Just days after the American holiday, Thanksgiving, we received a beautiful letter of appreciation from Flora Nanetia Ogeli that we would like to share with you here:

Did you know that rural Maasai girls miss up to 1/4 of the school year due to their menstrual periods? Without the funds or access to sanitary pads, girls stay home every month and fall behind in their classes. Our Alumni Group is addressing this education barrier by distributing sanitary pads to the most vulnerable Maasai girls. On November 19th, for example, the MGEF Alumni Group delivered sanitary pads to students at Iseuri Primary School in Kajiado, Kenya (see photo). This is the fourth school in Kenya to receive sanitary pads and mentoring from the MGEF Alumni Group.

On November 16th, 2012, MGEF Founder and President Barbara Lee Shaw spoke at the SAIS Global Women in Leadership lecture series to discuss nonprofit leadership and community development with SAIS students and faculty in Washington, DC. As described by Angie Taylor, of SAIS Global Women in Leadership, "This series aims to provide an intimate and open forum to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing women around the world.

MGEF students are going places. From a rural Kenyan village to Central America, our very own Abigael Simaloi Pertet is proving how far education and hard work can take her.

We're partnering with the online and international volunteering organization, Skills For Girls, to connect our college students with English tutors from around the world. How is this possible? Skills For Girls founder, Elaine Marshall (UK), realized that the growing availability of internet and computers, even in the most remote locations, was an untapped resource for education. When using Skype to tutor, the distance barrier between teacher and student is irrelevant.

Our Alumni Group is a coalition of MGEF alumni and current college students who are dedicated to empowering other Maasai women and girls. Their first project focuses on mentoring rural primary school girls and providing them with sanitary pads. These girls regularly miss school because they have no access to sanitary pads. This small but significant resource enables Maasai girls to attend school without interrupt.

Today we are featuring a very special MGEF student sponsor. Mary Grace is a 15-year-old girl who has turned her talent and business savvy into a creative mechanism for funding girls' education in Uganda, Kenya, Paraguay, and Haiti. Her business, Reverse the Course, sells handmade headbands and hair ribbons to accomplish one mission: to directly impact lives by assisting girls in under-developed communities attend school.