Each year I travel to Kenya in July, when the Maasai Girls Education Fund holds its general meeting. The meeting is attended by more than one hundred people including MGEF volunteers, teachers, parents and students. It is an opportunity for everyone in the community to contribute to our work and reaffirm our mission to increase literacy among Maasai women in Kenya and provide opportunities for their economic independence.

During my visits, I go to the schools where MGEF students are enrolled, traveling more than 2,000 kilometers altogether. I spend time with the students, their families, and their teachers. Each year my resolve is strengthened by the enthusiasm and gratitude of this community, and their dedication and hard work on behalf of the next generation of Maasai women. This year was no exception.

This past July, in spite of travel advisories and terrorist warnings, I made the trip to Kenya again, accompanied by Chelsea Muth, an intern who is a senior and honors student at a Northern Virginia high school. As part of the internship, Chelsea conducted an independent research project that compared the educational experience of Maasai girls with their peers in the United States.

Hosted by MGEF students Nenkai Meitiaki and Noel Kamukuru, Chelsea attended classes at two primary boarding schools in Kajiado, where 22 of the 36 MGEF students are enrolled, and spent the night in a school dormitory. As a peer, she was able to participate in the social interactions as well as classroom activities, and see from the students' perspective the value of our work. I would like to share some of her observations with you.

Chelsea writes, surprisingly, while visiting the Kenya primary schools, I found more similarities than differences between teenage girls in Kenya and the United States. The students love sports and, like American girls, have their favorite musicians and celebrities. The level of their studies is quite advanced, and the school curriculum is similar to US schools, but includes religion-both Christian and Islam-and "guidance," which includes discussion of AIDs, children's rights, and marriage.

On the surface, these girls are just like the kids I know at home. Yet, there are profound differences that were clear to me from the moment I met them. After an overwhelmingly warm welcome, the girls showed me their school with great pride and happiness, expressing their gratitude for being fortunate enough to be living in an environment with access to the tools they need to learn and succeed in a world where so many are left behind. I was astonished by the amount of time they dedicated to their studies. They are diligent, hard working, and amazingly self-directed. I was also amazed by their spiritual energy and maturity, Chelsea writes, describing how they begin and end each day with readings from the bible, prayers, and hymns of incomparable beauty. Chelsea's experience also provided an understanding of the obstacles young Maasai girls have to overcome and continue to deal with on a day-to-day basis. These include pressure for early marriage, and economic barriers that reinforce the cultural practice of arranged marriages for girls as young as twelve.

This, of course, is the reason for the Maasai Girls Education Fund and, for the 36 girls now sponsored by the Fund, those obstacles have been removed. But there are so many more that are left behind- forced to drop out of school between the ages of 12 and 14 for an arranged marriage they do not want. Most of these marriages take place in December and January each year, following the end of the Kenya school year in November. A great majority of these girls are greeted with news of the plans for their marriage when they return home after the third term ending in November, and almost all of them are circumcised and married by the beginning of the New Year. It is a frightening time for many Maasai girls.

In response to the pressing need to provide shelter for these girls, the Maasai Girls Education Fund has created a Rescue Fund that will allow these girls an alternative. The Rescue Fund is dedicated to providing shelter, school uniforms, and school supplies for the girls who are forced to leave home to avoid unwanted marriages and who want desperately to continue their education. These funds give us a start on creating a "Rescue Village," where girls who are estranged from their families can live while continuing their education as a "day student" at a nearby boarding school. Efforts to reconcile rescue girls with their families will be ongoing, but this can take from a few months up to two years. We estimate that there will a maximum of 40 girls in this category at any one time, at an average cost of approximately $150 per year per student, exclusive of the costs of building the Rescue Village. By locating the Village near a school, their tuition through primary school (8th grade) will be covered by the Kenya government. Initial support for the Rescue Fund has been provided by the Bauman Foundation in Washington, DC, the law firm of Zelle, Hofmann, Voelbel, Mason, and Gette in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and donations from individuals.

Contributions to our new Rescue Fund this December would make a big difference in the lives of the girls who will be greeted with the news of an arranged marriage when they return home at the end of November. Unless they have a place to go, even those who run away to avoid marriage must eventually return home. They need a refuge. As Chelsea recognized from time spent with the Maasai girls in the Kajiado District of Kenya, the extent of the love and respect for life possessed by the Kenyan girls is incomparable in my experience. These girls have overcome so many obstacles to get to where they are that they don't take a single step for granted. Perhaps that is what makes the greatest difference of all. Your contribution could remove the biggest obstacle of all.

Our work in Kenya during the past 2 ½ years has made a positive difference in many lives. Thirty-six Maasai girls are now realizing their dream to have an education. Many more now have hope that they too will have this opportunity. Equally important, 42 Maasai women and men throughout the Kajiado District are volunteering their time to make that happen.

For the benefit of Maasai girls in Kenya, I hope you will be able to contribute this year toward making a world of difference in a very small part of the world. We are now a 501(c)(3) organization, and all donations are tax deductible.