Maasai girls face many challenges because of cultural traditions such as female genital mutilation and forced early marriage, which prevent girls from continuing education.

Why we care: The Maasai community has the highest rate of child marriage in Kenya, with 90% of young girls undergoing female genital mutilation, getting married and dropping out of school.

How we are solving this: Changing the paradigm for girls’ education and learning in rural Kenya. 

Kakenya Center for Excellence is the only primary boarding school for girls in Enoosaen, Kenya, with 155 students enrolled in grades 4 to 8. The school serves the area’s most vulnerable and underprivileged girls and focuses on academic excellence, health education, female empowerment, leadership and community development. Through education, Kakenya Center for Excellence is providing girls with the tools they need to become agents of change and to break the destructive cycle of cultural practices, such as female genital cutting and forced early marriage.

Unlike the overcrowded neighboring schools, Kakenya Center for Excellence provides child-centered learning through small classes under the guidance of trained teachers. The classrooms and dormitory are in a secure environment, creating a safe haven for the girls to thrive, grow and pursue their dreams. Kakenya Center for Excellence provides all students the necessities needed to attend school—school fees, uniforms, school supplies, textbooks and three nutritious meals a day.

This project will help pay for the 36 girls in our fifth grade class to attend Kakenya Center for Excellence next year.  The funds for this project will help purchase uniforms, food for one year, books and supplies, and personal care items for 36 students. In addition, it will cover the salary of one teacher at the school. These fifth graders have created a strong bond with one another in their two years at the Kakenya Center for Excellence and their cohesiveness and sense of community has had a  palpable and contagious effect on our student body.   

 “My favorite thing here is learning. My favorite subject is science because we get to do a lot of experiments here. This school is better than other schools because the teachers actually teach and the students are better because they help each other.”  — Helen, Kakenya Center for Excellence, Grade 5

Helen’s  description of KCE exemplifies how access to quality education helps students build the confidence they need to succeed.  By remaining in school, we know that our students will marry later and have fewer children. Their children will be healthier and better educated than the previous generation. They will not circumcise their daughters.

Educating girls is the single most effective way to reduce poverty, improve health and bring development to communities worldwide.