Rescue Maasai Girls from Female Genital Mutilation

Maasai 72 Protecting 72 girls from female genital mutilation, forced marriage and illegal removal from elementary school

Our warning net is working! Recently, we learned that seven of the girls that we protect from female genital mutilation were suddenly and unexpectedly sent home from their boarding school.

It turns out that a new schoolmaster had taken over and he had decided that any child in his new school who had debt should be sent home.

This wasn't a problem for the girls who come from good families. They could simply go home and wait for their parents to raise the funds needed for them to go back  to school.

The problem for our seven girls (7 of the Maasai 72) is that they have no home to return to. If they were to go to their birth home, they would be immediately mutilated and sold into slavery.

Fortunately, we were prepared. We we now have eyes in years at all of the boarding schools where our girls attend. When the new schoolmaster kicked our girls out (against our agreement with a previous schoolmaster), we received word immediately. We sent up our transparency manager to intercept the girls, pay boarding school fees and our girls were allowed to remain in school

This all happened because of the excellent excellent communication between our executive director in the USA (Rick) and our Transparency Manager in Kenya (Anthony).

Anthony emailed Rick when he received word of the expulsions and Rick wired GR funds immediately. Anthony had the funds in four days and he was able to negotiate the return of the girls to school before any of them were sent home and mutilated.

New Dormitory Construction on our new dormitory for the girls is so behind that we had to look for a short-term option.Just last week (November 15th) we negotiated with another dormitory to take the girls in when they return to Carole’s from boarding school next month. As you may or may not know, Carole’s home was appropriately condemned by Kenya’s Health Authority. We use the word “appropriately” because we agree that her little house is not large enough to take in 72 Maasai runaways when they are home for two months a year from boarding school.

Attached are pictures of the dormitory facility we will use next month. It is located 100 meters from the entrance to Carole's compound and has a secure gate and fence. The priest who manages it confirmed that the rental fee is US$ 250 and will include the services of a matron who lives on the premises. The matron also cooks for the girls and as she also operates a shop from the building she is present all the time to monitor the girls.

The grounds are spacious and the girls would have plenty of room to relax and study.

Conclusion: thanks to our generous donors at Global Giving, all 72 girls in our protection program are currently in school and all payments for boarding school fees are current.

The future: four of our girls graduate from high school this year so we have started to look for individual donors who will sponsor each of the girls.

A permanent rescue center: we have started to seek a corporate sponsor or family foundation that will finance the acquisition of our own rescue center for the girls. Stay tuned!

Mary Keruta achieves highest marks We are so proud of Mary for becoming the leader of her school! Mary is the second girl to run to the police for protection from Female Genital Mutilation and Forced Marriage back in 2009 and the second to arrive at Carole’s home. That Mary was able to soar so high academically is proof that our program is working!!!

Without our help Mary would have been sold into slavery long ago. Now she will know what it feels like to be an educated and self actualized woman. Way to go Mary!!!

Oversight Mission and Clothing and supply delivery. Attached are a few photos of our clothing delivery (thank you St. Thomas School in Medina WA) and Global Giving donors.

Thank you all for your help!