This fall, 2009, our first young women of the Butterfly Project Scholarship program are headed for college and we want you to meet them in a personal way through their stories.
These are courageous young women. They have persisted in their education through primary and secondary schooling in a cultural tradition that does not value the education of girls. They have stood up to the ritual of genital mutilation. They have been on a path of leadership toward what’s possible for themselves and other girls in their village.
The thirst for learning is there. Their dreams to serve their rural communities through higher education and careers in teaching and nursing are there. They simply lack the necessary financial resources and that is where our partnership comes in. Each of us can stand behind these brave and promising young women with The Butterfly Project to provide the funds and the mentoring for their success.
All applicants complete an application form and submit at least one letter of recommendation from a community leader or former teacher. They provide their secondary school academic record and national test scores and they must show proof of college acceptance. They write an essay about themselves and their economic situation, their desire for higher education and to serve their communities once they graduate. Maintaining a B average for all courses is required while in college as well as volunteer service in a clinic or school.
Although we are focusing on nursing and teaching in the beginning because of the high value in improving the lives of many in their community, we are also holding the vision for some young women advancing in the sciences and arts and stepping onto the world stage in Africa. Physicist Neil Turok’s vision is that the next Einstein will be African and we would add, perhaps an African woman.
Village Volunteer, Sasha Rabsey recently traveled to Kenya and interviewed our three applicants. Her beautiful photos and stories give us a window to meet each of these young women and hear their dreams.
Juliette
Juliette speaks in a lovely hig whisper about 
her desire to be a primary school teacher in her Maasai community. Working to improve and help her community as well as contributing to the support of her family is very important to her. Her father passed away when she was young and her mother does not work so supporting the family is up to Juliette and her six siblings. Most of her siblings only went through primary school and are either unable to find jobs or make enough money to make much of a difference. Juliette is definitive when she expresses her desire to contribute to the support of her mother and younger brothers and sisters.
Fortunately Juliette’s family is supportive of her wish to continue her studies at a nearby teacher’s college. After two years of study she would have a certificate of teaching that would allow her to teach at the primary and middle school levels. Her inspiration and perseverance come from a few of the teachers she had when she was in school.
Juliette is eager to attend school in the fall in order to avoid an early marriage to an older man in the community who has made advances and proposals to her family. She has seen too many of her school mates get pregnant and married at a young age and does not want this same fate for herself. When I asked why she didn’t want to get an education and move away from her community she said that becoming a teacher and coming back to her community in the hopes of educating and inspiring other Maasai girls to aspire to more than the fate of genital cutting, pregnancy and marriage by the time they are fourteen would be far more satisfying to her than teaching outside of the community. Juliette has a deep desire to “give back” to her community and her people.
Georgina
A beautiful, gapped tooth smile spreads across Georgina’s face as her 1 ½ year old daughter Kelsey toddles over to sit on her mother’s lap.
Georgina is 22 years old and has three children; Ishmael 8yrs, Laurence 7 yrs and Kelsey. She is Maasai and comes from a polygamist family where her father is married to four wives, each has 10 children for a grand total of 40 siblings. Growing up, Georgina saw the boys in her immediate and extended family always getting priority in education Georgina attended the local public school where the education was substandard but she had the motivation to study hard and sit for the National Exams for a spot in a local high school. Passing these exams is difficult at best given the poor teaching standards. She took her exam at 13 years of age and passed but her father did not give her any hope of attending because she was to be married to an older man in the village and stay home to raise a family. She was also told that she was to undergo the painful and often fatal process of female circumcision. She refused the circumcision, which is mandatory if a girl is to be considered for marriage, by running away. Luckily a community support group convinced her father to let her come home and avoid circumcision. Georgina’s mother and brother, Emmanuel Tasur, the director of Namunyak Maasai Welfare supported her desire to continue with her education and her dream of becoming a teacher. But her dreams would be delayed because at the age of 14 she became pregnant with her first child. Georgina felt useless and was deeply saddened that she would not be able to continue with her education. Fortunately, Emmanuel continued to support her morally and financially and her mother offered to take care of the baby while Georgina went to school. In her second year of high school she became pregnant with her second child, Laurence. Now Georgina felt completely defeated and thought she would never make it to University. But with her mother’s and Emmanuel’s continued support and guidance she finished high school.
While watching her children grow, Georgina has become very interested in teaching and helping children. She now teaches nursery level at Aulo Surua Academy a school founded by Emmanuel. While sitting in Georgina’s class one can see her love and the individual attention she gives to each child. She is patient and sees each child differently and is acutely aware of each child’s strengths and weaknesses. She also has two special needs children in her class and even though she does not have any special needs training she finds a way to include them in the class lessons by working with their strengths.
Georgina is an inspiring teacher who exudes love, and caring for the children in her class. She desperately wants to continue with her training in order to apply what she learns to her current classroom. She wants the members of the Butterfly Project to know that she has turned her life around and is devoted to being the best mother and teacher that she can be.
Sialo
Sialo is a statuesque twenty year old Maasai 
woman yearning for a college education in order to become a nurse. Her esire is to become a nurse and return to her village and help her people by teaching family planning, the dangers of female genital cutting and AIDS education.
Sialo is from a polygamist family and has twelve siblings; six boys and six girls. She is the first born girl and has been raised in a family where boys are given priority over girls in every aspect of Maasai life. The boys in her family have always been given school fees first because the expectation for Sialo and her sisters is that they would marry an elderly man in the village and raise a family in a polygamist household as well. But this is not the path that she envisioned for herself and exhibits a fire of desire that is going to take her life in a different direction than anyone expects.
Sialo always knew that she could do whatever a boy could do and better. Her belief in herself kept her going through secondary school in a system without any incentives to study hard in order to move on and sit for the National Exams. The National Exams are offered at two levels; one is for acceptance to a high school and the next is for the very few slots available in a highly competitive system at the university level. While everyone around her was barely getting an education due to under qualified teachers and a lack of resources, Sialo was studying on her own and put herself on the path to sitting for the exams. “I must have hope because I know I can do better than the boys if I am given a chance” is what she told me when I asked what inspired her to work so hard. In 2007 she passed and was accepted at a University but was told by her father that she would not be able to attend because any money available would go toher brothers first. Sialo would have none of that and told her father that she would go even if he didn’t give her the money. Eventually, he relented but only gave her enough money to attend for one semester without any money for room and board. Sialo’s university has helped but they are unable to continue their assistance due to lack of funds. Her family feels she doesn’t deserve the money and keep dangling and retracting the money for her schooling.
In rural areas it is rare for a girl to pass the National Exams much less a Maasai girl. Mostly, they marry young and become pregnant with no hopes after that of any future education. Maasai nurses are also very rare but these daunting statistics do not hold back this young woman. “I want to prove I can do anything. I want to come back as a nurse and help change my community because I think my community will listen to me instead of an outsider”.
It was obvious to me after spending an afternoon with this young woman that nothing is going to stand in her way of getting that education and bringing change for a better future to her community and her people.
