Global Relief Resources Scholarship Fund

Mary Walker with girls at the Tasaru Girls Rescue Center in Narok, Kenya

Girls at the Tasaru Girls Rescue Center in Narok, Kenya

Maasai girls preparing for an alternative rite of passage near Narok, Kenya

Maasai woman singing (Thanks to "javic"q for the photo)

By Mary Walker, Scholarship Fund Manager

In January 2008, Global Relief Resources established the Tasaru Scholarship Fund. This fund assists Maasai girls from the Tasaru Girls Rescue Centre in Narok, Kenya once they have completed secondary school and left its care. The centre provides a safe-house and education through secondary school for Maasai girls who have been rescued from female genital mutilation (FGM) and forced childhood marriage. These practices, illegal in Kenya, are still prevalent among the Maasai who number approximately 800,000 in Kenya.

By paying the school fees and associated costs of teachers’ college, college, university, or vocational training for girls that have completed secondary school and left the care of the Tasaru Girls Rescue Centre, this fund is helping these girls prepare for sustainable employment in Kenya - a key element in the indigenous effort to eradicate FGM/forced marriage in the Maasai culture. These are girls who exhibit high academic achievement in spite of overwhelming obstacles. The purpose of this fund is to insure that girls from Tasaru have the opportunity to attend college, gain valuable career skills, and contribute to the long-term economic and social wellbeing of their families and communities. FGM/forced marriage is a component of a longstanding economic cycle that places a one-time value on the life of a Maasai girl. Maasai women contributing in an ongoing way to their families’ long term economic wellbeing will hasten the eradication of FGM/forced marriage from Maasai culture. Access to education and job training will do this by enabling Maasai women to provide a sustainable economic and social benefit to their families & in their communities as well as act as role models for other Maasai girls.

Azlan White, the executive director of GRR, and I met in Kenya in December 2007. Recognizing the immediate needs of several girls who had recently completed secondary school, were preparing to leave the care of the centre, and had no support to pursue additional education or job training, Azlan and I quickly established guidelines for a fund to assist them with post-secondary education costs.

Today, less than a year after the establishment of the fund, two girls from Tasaru are attending teachers’ colleges in Kenya, while two others are training to become pre-school teachers. Because of the fund, these 4 girls from Tasaru are pursuing the educational opportunities they need to improve their families’ economic futures and break the cycle of female genital mutilation/forced marriage among the Maasai. The goal of the fund is to provide the same opportunity each year now to girls as they finish secondary school and leave the centre. Over the next 3 years alone, we anticipate assisting up to 15 girls as they complete secondary school and embark on the next phase of their lives outside the rescue centre.

As the fund manager for the Tasaru Scholarship Fund, it is my role to work with girls from the rescue centre as they complete secondary school and begin the transition process into a post-secondary program. This includes assisting them with obtaining a national Identity Card, the application and follow-up process for a program, organizing their needs once they leave the centre including school supplies, clothing, & transportation, and payment of their school fees. For now, I travel to Kenya three times a year in order to oversee this process and insure that the girls’ needs are being addressed. I will be returning to Kenya in early December to begin the organization process with 3-4 girls at the rescue centre who will complete secondary school in November 2009, be sure that each of the four girls that the fund is currently supporting are getting along okay, arrange for payment of term fees for the two girls in teachers colleges, and enjoy Christmas with the 45-50 girls who live at the rescue centre.

Mary Walker with scholarship fund recipients at the Tasaru Girls Rescue Center in Narok

“The best way to be more free is to grant more freedom to others.”
-Carlo Dossi

Global Relief Resources believes that girls who are already speaking out to protect their own bodies from violence, are most likely to succeed as leaders. Our scholarship fund is geared toward girls who are changing the cycle of violent Female Genital Mutilation in Africa. Please consider sponsoring a Young Massai leader through school as she changes her culture to one that is empowering for her.