UPDATE: any amount we have will be extremely helpful and a wonderful blessing. Some have asked how much is needed to provide a light for each student’s family home. Therefor, I have increased the goal to $3250 to reflect this amount.

Hi friends!  On March 15, 2019, my wonderful friend, Susie, and I will be departing for my dream trip to Kenya, where my mother was born and raised.  Because we did not just want to see the tourist sites on my visit, we have decided to travel with a group call My Chosen Vessels, a non-profit that works with The Maasai people in the Amboseli region of Kenya.  The Maasai have thrived as a semi-nomadic tribe of people who live off the land and measure their wealth in livestock.  While they have largely maintained their traditional culture, with little influence from our "modernized" world, they are increasingly having issues accessing clean water for themselves and their livestock due to delayed and shortening rainy seasons.  Their movement and settlement is somewhat limited by country and park boundaries and some are having to walk up to 12 miles daily to access clean water to keep themselves and their livestock healthy and alive.  My Chosen Vessels has worked with Engineers without Borders and the Maasai communities to install wells and design ways to ensure sustainable access to water.  This has helped allow children more time to attend school as while Maasai children have not traditionally attended school because what we consider a formal or traditional education was not necessary for their success, it is now increasingly helpful for children of the tribe to obtain a more formal education.  This is because they are now reliant on money to supplement their original, traditional, lifestyle to make ends meet when food supply is short and to participate in an increasingly globalized world.  Some will aim to take jobs as tourist and safari guides in their communities or as park rangers to protect wildlife.  Children are beginning to be sent away to schools if they are not available nearby, or, ideally, attending schools that are slowly being established in their communities.  With this Go Fund Me campaign, I am hoping to raise money to provide solar powered lights for the families of Olgulului/Ololarashi Group Ranch (OOGR) as they have no windows in their huts where they reside.  A solar powered light can provide light after dusk in the huts so that the children are able to study and complete their school work in the evening.  A solar powered light can be provided to each family for just $25 and will make a world of difference.  I will be raising money until March 5 to allow time to receive the money raised from Go Fund Me and will hand deliver the donation to the families of the Olgulului/Ololarashi Group Ranch when I arrive in Kenya.  When I return, I will report back to you all with pictures of the community and families that you have helped.  I will also present them with a list of all donors so that they will know that you have wished to help their children be successful in their education and increasing role in our global community.  Our group will not be there to influence their religion (which is already a mix of Christian, Islam, and Indigenous religions), way of dress, or culture (except for suggestions to aid with wildlife conservation).  We will only be helping them in they ways that they find helpful and in line with their culture and with projects that are sustainable and led by their communities without the physical presence of volunteers.  The Maasai are a strong, intelligent, and beautiful people, and I hope that if you are able, you will consider a donation, no matter how big or small, to this cause.