Rescue Maasai Girls from Female Genital Mutilation

Note: we must use initials in this report to protect both the identity of the threatened girls and those who are protecting them. There remain adults who are angry because they are unable to cut their daughters and sell them into marriage.

 Success!

One of the Maasai school girls we support (we will call her PL) called Global Roots manager Anthony in Nairobi to thank us for the financial support that enabled her to complete high school last year. 

This June, PL will proceed to one of Kenya’s medical training colleges to study either nursing or medical lab technology. This is a very big deal because this tells us she passed her college entrance exams and she is so exceptional that she also won a free ride to college.

PL has shown her tribe that all young girls deserve an education and NONE should be subjected to Female Genital Mutilation and forced marriage.

PL had nothing to hope for when she was 12 and now all of her dreams are coming true. Global Roots played a very small role in PL’s rise. At every step of the way it was up to PL to study hard, stay in school and somehow resist the social forces that can derail even the smartest young girl. This often comes in the form of adult males who try to move in to divert young girls with gifts and/attention or wealthy young boys from private schools who try to “hook up” with girls at boarding schools – especially those who have little or no family supervision during holidays.

There are no words for the joy all of us are feeling for PL’s success. Thank you Global Giving donors – especially whoever registered recently to make a $250 “monthly” (revolving) donation. Monthly donations help us make a rational financial plan to pay for the boarding school costs that keep our girls safe from the horrors of Female Genital Mutilation.

Global Roots pays boarding school fees for 32 girls and rescue operations when we hear about a threatened girl or when one of the girls in our program are sent home for any reason from boarding school. We are now seeking a sponsor family for each of the 32 girls. Sponsorship costs $500 a year for approximately eight years. Stay tuned for our next report when I (Rick Montgomery, Executive Director of Global Roots) will share my own sponsorship experience.

MK’s son is recovering from his burns

We are happy to report that JK is on the mend from the terrible burns he suffered (see previous report) when his twin brother inadvertently pushed him over in the kitchen causing a pot of boiling water to fall on him.

Measures have been taken to not allow such an event to happen again. The grandma who watched it happen is also recovering from her shock. Any parent or grandparent who has ever watched a child suffer a serious wound understands.

JS is expected to make “nearly” a complete recovery. Global Roots wired funds for JS’s medicine shortly after the accident but we all became worried when his burns turned white. A local doctor told us it was normal and that the burns would darken as JS healed. You can see in the attached photo that JS is well on his way to recovery.

JS is a very important child to Global Roots because he is the son of the second girl we protected from FGM many years ago. JS’s mother is now a school teacher who was able to marry her first love, a young man named SS who, until recently, was studying to become a veterinarian.

A complication during MK’s pregnancy required SS to sell his inheritance (cattle) to pay for his wife’s surgery.

I was so impressed by SS during my visit to Kenya last June that we are now training him to serve as Global Roots’ FGM emergency response manager in Kenya.

Should any of the young girls who currently receive funding for boarding school from Global Roots be forcefully removed from school, SS will be dispatched to check on the girl immediately. Should the girl be truly threatened by FGM, SS will take up the case with the local police and the girl will be taken to SS’s wife who will protect the girl until Global Roots finds a new home for her.

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Thank you for all of your support!

Female Genital Mutilation is still practiced in the darkest corners in many countries around the world. It is regarded as a crime against humanity by the UN and it is a federal offense in Kenya. It is still common in rural areas that are largely out of the Kenyan government's sphere of influence.

Please contact Global Roots to learn more or to get involved. info@globalroots.org