Keeping Kenyan Kids in School!

Our founder and a team of nine (including four local staff)  traveled across Kenya in July to check on the progress of all projects, investigate the soundness of a new project that will protect young Maasai girls from Female Genital Mutiliation and keep them in school and assist/train our local staff.

We started in the Maasai Mara where we interviewed young Maasai school girls and had long meetings with Caroline Nangeya -- a brave Maasai woman and FGM victim -- who has taken in more than 42 girls who ran away from both FGM and forced marriage.

After carefully analyzing Mrs. Nangeya's efforts, we determined that she understands the importance of transparency so we agreed to cover 100% of the food costs for these 42 runaways when they are home from boarding school for two months a year. We are now raising funds to build these children a proper dormitory.

We also traveled south to Mtito Andei where we have been supporting an assortment of poverty reduction projects since 2004.

1. We picked up shovels and helped Chairman Leva construct a new building that will be used as a Cultural Center.

2. We inspected the children's garden and chicken egg farm at Matangini School and met with the school master to find out what more we can do for his 300 children.

3. We delivered a complete outfit (shirt, pants and shoes) to more than 10 orphans.

4. We installed solar panels on at least 20 of the areas poorest homes so that school children can do their homework for the first time with a proper light bulb.

5. We visited remote children's homes and inspected the poorest part of Mtito -- on the East side of the Nairobi/Mombasa highway.

6. We visited the hospital and met with the nurse we have been supporting for two years.

Please see the attached photo

On July 2 a team of seven will arrive in Kenya to accomplish the following objectives:

1. The team, lead by GR founder Rick Montgomery, will visit a girl's home in the Masai Mara to support an intiative that will protect hundreds of Masai pre-teens from female genital mutilation. Global Roots has been working with the son of a Masai chief who believes that it is time to end this barbaric custom. Rick's team will encourage the young women to stay the course because we believe that it is wrong for any man to cut out the clittoris of a young woman without her agreement. Global Roots is looking into a plan that will involve text books and free college to any young woman who breaks from the tradition. We understand that it can be a lonely path but we have learned that many tribes will welcome back an educated woman who earns a salary.

2. The team will also visit Mtito Andei where it will support Levi and the Matangini tribe in their efforts to create a tribal owned safari camp. The Global Roots funded camp, JipeMoyo.com, will bring in badly needed income to a tribe that is currently impoverished. The Global Roots team will teach tribal members how to greet and care for foreign tourists.

3. The team will also help our longtime partner Rosina develop better ways to foster out the 1,800 HIV orphans she has under her care. Interviews will be conducted with all players including the local nurse. Rick Montgomery, team leader, hopes to purchase a mini van for the nurse so that she can drive into the countryside to deliver food to children who must take powerful dosages of HIV medication. Many children die because they take HIV medication on empty stomaches.

4. The team will also look into the creation of an HIV information center in Mtito Andei. It has been demonstrated that such centers can educate local people on better ways to protect themselves against HIV.