Interact Club program benefits girls of the Maasai Village Ngong’Narok in Kenya
Submitted by John Hogan
During the Madison High School (MHS) Day of Service on Friday, May 28, sixty students from MHS, under the leadership of the Madison Rotary sponsored MHS Interact Club, walked a 6-mile route through Madison. The Interact Club sought to raise awareness of their project to create an international bridge from high school students in Madison to high school girls from the rural Maasai village of Ngong’Narok in Kenya.
After a visit to this village ten years ago, Rotary members Paul and Avery Mantell created a foundation, the Maasai Girls Fund (maasaigirlsfund.org). They were deeply moved when learning that, at that time, girls as young as eight were genitally cut and “sold” as child brides to older men in exchange for cows and goats – to lead a life of ignorance, servitude and often pain. Through the Mantell’s efforts, the village chief agreed to allow the Mantells to fund some girls’ education and stop cutting. Girls from the village lucky enough to get a sponsor could look forward to attending boarding high school and a life making their own choices. Cost of a full year of high school – including tuition, room & board, uniforms, and books – is only $600.
Students wore lanyards with pictures of some of the girls from the village whose high school education was sponsored through the Fund. The Interact Club raised $600 on their own, received donations from students attending the walk, and seeks to raise the full additional $600 from the Madison community to allow funding for one girl for two years of high school. They plan to follow this girl’s progress through written and video communication and share the story with other students.
Please consider a donation:
If you have a PayPal account (preferred, 0% admin fee): paypal.com/us/fundraiser/charity/2770554
If you don’t have PayPal account (via Network for Good, 4.75% fee for using credit card): nfggive.com/guidestar/81-2456558
Photo by Madison Public Schools
