Help keep Maasai girls in school by educating tomorrow’s leaders today.

Why we care: Maasai girls remain severely marginalized by cultural traditions, such as female genital cutting and forced early marriage. These practices prevent girls from reaching their full potential, as they often drop out of school by age 12 to marry and have children.

How we are solving this: Providing Maasai girls with a safe place to live and learn, enabling them to pursue their dreams and goals, forever changing their life trajectory.

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 30 girls to attend the Kakenya Center for Excellence this year. Access to a quality education will help our students build the confidence they need to stand up for themselves. As a result, we believe they 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.

Kakenya Center for Excellence is a member of Girls Not Brides a global partnership of more than 250 non-governmental organizations committed to end child marriage.

www.girlsnotbrides.org @GirlsNotBrides