Dear Friends of MGEF,

A new generation of Maasai women is beginning to emerge in Kenya, respectful of their culture and their families, but determined to have a better life for themselves and their families. Unlike 80 percent of the women in their mothers’ generation, more of the women in this new generation are educated and able to get a job.

The Maasai Girls Education Fund is helping Maasai women become educated and employable. For seven years, we have been providing continuous scholarships to more than 70 Maasai girls from nursery school to college. We are committed to seeing our students graduate from secondary school and go on to vocational school, college, or university so that they can have an opportunity for economic independence. They, in turn, will help their families and communities rise out of poverty. They will choose how to live their lives. They will educate their children, and they will have a voice in the democratic development of Kenya.

When MGEF began sponsoring Simantoi Kilama in 2000, she had no hope of graduating from secondary school. Her family was extremely poor, and her father was adamantly opposed to educating girls. With an MGEF scholarship, Simantoi did graduate from secondary school, and from the Kenya Medical Training College with a diploma in public health nursing. For the past two years, she has been working at a health clinic in Nairobi, sending 17% of her income home to her mother every month, in addition to paying family medical bills and buying school uniforms for nephews and nieces. Simantoi’s financial contribution to her family in one year exceeds the one-time dowry she would have brought from marriage. Her inspiration was her mother, shown with Simantoi in the photograph. Simantoi is planning to continue her education to get a university degree in psychology.

Simantoi’s story demonstrates the impact that educating women will have on poverty. But there is more to learn from her experience and others who follow her. This past year, MGEF launched a joint documentary project with the Women’s Edge Coalition to follow several MGEF students as they graduate from colleges and universities and enter the workplace, recording the social and economic impact of education on their lives, their families, and their communities. In January 2007, I conducted the first interview with Simantoi. I invite you to listen to Simantoi tell her own story by listening to part of this interview, which has been posted on the Women's Edge Coalition Web Site.

This year, four MGEF students are attending colleges or universities, and four more will enter vocational schools, colleges, and universities in January. Ten of our students graduated from secondary school in November, and six graduated from primary school. Some have been receiving scholarships since 1999. Without MGEF, many of these girls would never have been enrolled in school; many would have had to drop out of school to be married; none would have been able to afford secondary school, much less vocational school, college, or university.

MGEF also continued its Life Skills Workshops to give girls who are 10 and older the knowledge and skills to prevent teen pregnancy, reduce early marriages and female circumcision, as well as the spread of HIV—all significant factors contributing to girls’ dropping out of school and taboo subjects in the Maasai culture. More than 1,100 girls have attended these workshops. In October, we invited the mothers to attend a workshop for the first time at Esilanke Primary School, where many myths and misconceptions were addressed. The 60 mothers who attended the workshop were so inspired that they mobilized their community to educate boys as well as girls, men as well as women. A month later, the community organized their own life skills workshop for boys and girls. As more and more mothers gain the lessons from these workshops, more and more communities will follow Esilanke’s example.

MGEF is making a difference in the lives of Maasai girls and women, and ultimately their families and community, and this would not be possible without the generous support of many people. On behalf of all Maasai people, I would like to thank Aid for Africa, the Bauman Foundation, the Beldon Fund, the Green Park Foundation, the Kenya Community Development Foundation, Stiftung Kinder-Hilfe, The Summit Fund of Washington, The Tides Foundation, and the many individuals whose generous support and commitment to Maasai girls’ education has helped create a new generation of educated Maasai women. I hope you will continue to support our work.

With appreciation and best wishes for the holidays,