Help Maasai Girls Stay in School!
Donation protected
Admissions to quality schooling is not free on the Maasai Mara. Covid-19 has rendered Maasai families unable to sustain themselves in myriad ways. Maasai Mara families rely heavily upon sustainable and ecologically conscious tourism: for employment and land-lease income through wildlife conservancies, for reliable customer bases for their local crafts, for a proven effective way to preserve their ecosystems, for access to better medical care, food and education, etc.
Right now, it is particularly crucial to *keep girls in school* and help them gain the skills to negotiate better lives for themselves. Without a quality education as an avenue for self advocacy and advancement, the reality for girls will be one of falling into domestically abusive relationships (untimely marriages to older men, genital mutilation, in addition to generally not being invested in by their communities).
Every society on Earth is plagued by misogyny and sexist double standards. It's important, if we are intent upon helping others, to first understand the routine atrocities against girls and women (specifically indigenous girls and women/girls and women of color) which we have normalized within our own communities. If we go forward in this way and recognize our own willingness to learn and change, we can *give* with a feeling of hope and a sense of faith -- that others too are willing to open their minds and hearts to a better way.
This fundraiser is for covering 40 Maasai girls' school fees. The person with whom I am networking to bring this into effect is Jack Lekishon, a man local to Narok who has been tirelessly fundraising for his community since the past 15+ months, primarily to feed them. Together we have started a monthly sanitary towel drive for the girls and have successfully put one girl in school. Even though we've only been networking on these specific issues for a month, he has been transparent every single day, has promptly provided itemized receipts which I have requested and has been very consistent with providing the information I have needed in order to cross reference all the moving parts of how the communities and the conservancies work together in the Maasai Mara region. His references as well as our mutual friends have spoken nothing but highly of him, and my husband has had a few in depth phone calls with Jack as well, mostly about how their conservation system works and what his life has been like as a conservationist and tour guide on the Mara. This has been an extraordinary and educational experience thus far, and Anupam and I care a great deal about helping these communities.
Will you also please help Jack keep these 40 girls in school? It will mean the world to them, and dramatically improve the course of their lives if we succeed in doing so. Thank you so much for reading, for caring and for speaking up for girls of the Maasai Mara whose families are so strained right now by lack of revenue and resources due to the Covid-19 crisis.
Take one step at a time, and don't forget to *be here, now*.
In Peace,
Cheryl
Right now, it is particularly crucial to *keep girls in school* and help them gain the skills to negotiate better lives for themselves. Without a quality education as an avenue for self advocacy and advancement, the reality for girls will be one of falling into domestically abusive relationships (untimely marriages to older men, genital mutilation, in addition to generally not being invested in by their communities).
Every society on Earth is plagued by misogyny and sexist double standards. It's important, if we are intent upon helping others, to first understand the routine atrocities against girls and women (specifically indigenous girls and women/girls and women of color) which we have normalized within our own communities. If we go forward in this way and recognize our own willingness to learn and change, we can *give* with a feeling of hope and a sense of faith -- that others too are willing to open their minds and hearts to a better way.
This fundraiser is for covering 40 Maasai girls' school fees. The person with whom I am networking to bring this into effect is Jack Lekishon, a man local to Narok who has been tirelessly fundraising for his community since the past 15+ months, primarily to feed them. Together we have started a monthly sanitary towel drive for the girls and have successfully put one girl in school. Even though we've only been networking on these specific issues for a month, he has been transparent every single day, has promptly provided itemized receipts which I have requested and has been very consistent with providing the information I have needed in order to cross reference all the moving parts of how the communities and the conservancies work together in the Maasai Mara region. His references as well as our mutual friends have spoken nothing but highly of him, and my husband has had a few in depth phone calls with Jack as well, mostly about how their conservation system works and what his life has been like as a conservationist and tour guide on the Mara. This has been an extraordinary and educational experience thus far, and Anupam and I care a great deal about helping these communities.
Will you also please help Jack keep these 40 girls in school? It will mean the world to them, and dramatically improve the course of their lives if we succeed in doing so. Thank you so much for reading, for caring and for speaking up for girls of the Maasai Mara whose families are so strained right now by lack of revenue and resources due to the Covid-19 crisis.
Take one step at a time, and don't forget to *be here, now*.
In Peace,
Cheryl
Organizer
Cheryl V Ewers
Organizer
Springfield, OR
