Gender Equality Kenya Project #49801

Keep Maasai Girls Learning in Kenya

by For the Good

Project Report | Mar 2, 2023
For the Good Programs Update: February 2023

By Kate Lapides-Black | For the Good Communications Director

Naserian with children at the new preschool, 2022.

Since we began our work in Kenya’s Loita Hills four years ago, we have been continually humbled by the way communities come together on behalf of their children time and again. Every accomplishment of our organization in this remote, rural region has truly been thanks to the effort of countless others. Every inch of progress has been powered by your generosity as well as by the grit, persistence and vision of our staff and interns and the headteachers, parents and leaders in the villages where we work.

Over the past year, we watched Mausa, one of the most isolated and struggling communities we work with, raise 1.5 million Kenya shillings –– the equivalent of $12,000 USD, an enormous amount for a rural village, to help build a secondary school amidst a severe drought. We also swelled with pride as three of our new Team Angaza interns –– Anne, Emily and Naserian, opened preschools in their villages. Each did so on their own initiative after observing the large numbers of children in their respective communities who were too small to safely walk 5-10 KM to the nearest government ECD (early childhood development center). We’ve been humbled after learning that many of these same interns and also our staff –– nearly all young mothers themselves –– often pay the school fees of other young girls in their villages when they see their own mothers struggling to feed them, all so they can stay in school.

One of the more beautiful aspects of Maasai culture is the high value placed on communal wellbeing, and the countless ways women help each other in the absence of an official social safety net. “As Maasai women, we have gone through many difficult things,” explains Christine Mpoe, our Intern Coordinator. “Our own struggles allow us to open [our] hearts and share to help others. When I see someone in trouble, my heart will not be in peace. They –– the girls we help –– will eventually be the light we wish to see in Maasai land. I am hoping that later, they will likewise help others.”

You can read more about the many inspiring ways that communities came together for each other and partnered with us to create change for girls in Kenya last year in our 2022 Annual Report, coming out at the end of February. Our 2022 report, and all other past annual reports, can be found through this link.Thank you, as always, for being the generous engine that powers this work.

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Oct 13, 2022
For the Good Programs Update: October 2022

By Kate Lapides-Black | For the Good Communications Director

In December 2020, you contributed to For the Good through GlobalGiving, support which helped fund our three core programs, all of which continue today. Below is an update on the powerful impact your support helped create:

Primary School Enrollments: Our team of young Team Angaza interns has grown from four in 2019-2021 to a powerful group of 11 young Maasai women working to enroll children from over 25 villages into 17 different primary schools. These interns have enrolled over 600 children into classrooms in the Loita Hills since schools reopened in 2021 after COVID-closures. They also follow up to ensure children are staying in classrooms by visiting with local teachers and families to identify and find solutions to any barriers that might be preventing their children’s continued attendance.

Secondary Schools: We significantly intensified our focus on our secondary school program in 2022 in response to a policy change from the Kenyan government that requires all new secondary schools have four classrooms, a laboratory, and an administrative space before they can become officially registered and receive government support. Previously, schools were able to open in any physical space, get registered and acquire government support after just one year and grow slowly with time and each new incoming class.

At the time of this policy change, we had already launched four new day secondary schools in the villages of Mausa, Morijo, Olorte and Olmesutie. Ensuring these four schools get fully built out in 2023 so they can become registered and gain government support has become a high priority for us.These day schools are especially critical in remote rural regions like the Loita Hills where families experience high rates of poverty –– and some of the highest teen pregnancy rates across Kenya (40%). Day schools are 1/8th the cost of boarding schools, will accept any child regardless of their score on the KCPE, Kenya’s secondary school entrance exam, and provide an option to continue school for girls that have babies.

The lower cost and increased accessibility of day schools means that proximity to them can change everything for countless girls like Nashipae, who was the highest scoring girl in the Loita Hills on Kenya’s high school entrance exam but lost her chance to go to a prestigious boarding school after becoming pregnant. Thankfully, a day school we started with the community of Morijo, the village where Nashipae now lives, had recently opened and she was able to re-enroll in high school. She can now take classes during the day and return 2KM home each night to take care of her baby. Nashipae is now completing her first year of high school.

Our work in Kenya truly only happens with support and caring from people like you. On behalf of countless girls in Kenya, our heartfelt thank you for your generosity and caring.

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Jun 21, 2022
For the Good Programs Update: June 2022

By Kate Lapides-Black | For the Good Communications Director

Najma, the day before heading off to 10th grade

From the Field: Walking with Communities

Community work is like a dance: Sometimes you lead, sometimes you follow, sometimes you step on toes, and occasionally, experience flow states of beautiful synchrony. Our recent trip to Kenya illustrated just how apt those words can be. We experienced a vehicle breakdown that left us stranded in the middle of the night and torrential evening rains that resulted in impassable roads. Our greatest disappointment came at learning of a new government policy that increases the economic barrier to starting new schools by requiring additional classrooms and a laboratory be built before the government will formally register and begin funding a secondary school.

Gratefully, most of these closed doors led to a valuable new opportunity. The roads that were impassable to our small van meant we had to hire Mike; one of two local Maasai guides with a Land Rover. Mike deftly steered us through the mud and 4WD roads so we could reach Morijo, Olmesutie, Oltarakuai, Olorte, and Mausa, all villages we are partnering with to open new day secondary schools. Serendipitously, Mike also happens to be the thoughtful director of the BOM (parent's Board of Management) of Osinantei. Within days, he organized other parents from this village to meet with us to explore the possibility for a new secondary school there. And, while we work out how to respond to the government’s new secondary school requirements in the future, we remain committed to the four secondary schools already in development in Morijo, Olmesutie, Olorte and Mausa to ensure they ultimately get registered and survive. These four schools are already supporting over a hundred students that would otherwise be married off or sent for menial jobs in the city.

Our summer fundraising goal is to raise $40,000 to contribute to these four communities own fundraising efforts to begin fully building out their schools. We have been heartened by their resilience in the face of this unexpected new barrier on top of the drought, livestock loss and other challenges they have already faced this year. "If you want to go fast, go alone," says the proverb. "If you want to go far, go together." We are grateful for the opportunity to walk together with our partners in Kenya. Together, we work to survive and ultimately, thrive, through the constant challenges and opportunities we encounter in our shared journey to create more opportunity for the children of the Loita Hills. And we remain deeply grateful, too, for all of you who also walk beside us, figuratively, if not literally, through your belief in our work. Your support helps fund our core programs throughout the year and are essential to our mission. On the behalf of countless girls in Kenya, our heartfelt thank you.

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