By: centraljersey.com
PENNINGTON – Seeds to Sew International Inc., a Hopewell Valley-based nonprofit organization, is working with Hopewell Valley Central High School’s Hopewell-Keroka Alliance and local residents and business owners to raise $6,000 for Maasai Girls School in Kenya.
The high school’s alliance has been working to help Kenya for several years, sending aid and teams of students and adults to the country.
"The Maasai are indigenous to Kenya and Tanzania, and are known for their distinctive customs and dress, with age-old cultural practices that, until now, have survived generations in a changing world," said Ellyn Ito, co-founder and director of Seeds to Sews.
"The Maasai tribes are viewed as a ‘must-see’ tourist stop for those traveling through Kenya. But, in a world very different than their traditional, nomadic way of life, cultural customs are clashing with the current reality. With the Kenyan government enforcing land ownership and agricultural subsistence, the Maasai find themselves struggling with limited land-use, over-population, rising incidences of HIV, poverty and malnutrition," she said.
On Dec. 4 at Educational Testing Service’s Chauncey Conference Center in Lawrence, Kakenya Ntaiya, the founder of The Kakenya Center for Excellence in Enoosaen, Kenya, told of "her journey of overcoming tremendous odds to become the first girl allowed out of her traditional Maasai village to attend college in the United States, and her return to the village to open the first and only school for girls in the region," Ms. Ito said.
According to Ms. Ito, Ms. Ntaiya told of how, in the patriarchal Maasai culture, the worth of a girl is seen only in the number of cows that might be collected from a dowry, and a woman’s worth, in the number of children she produces. In a region where only 11 percent of girls progress to secondary school, girls are often married at 12 or 13, and though only children themselves, are quickly thrust into the world of childbearing and motherhood. The traditional culture sees educating girls as a waste of time, and as a result, teachers focus on boys, and even the brightest of girls become lost in the classroom, and eventually drop out. Betrothed to a village boy at age 5, Ms. Ntaiya witnessed the hardship of her mother’s life, of working long days in tending the cows, or plowing the fields, and being beaten when there was no food on the table. Knowing that her betrothed was even poorer than her family, she knew she wanted something different.
School provided a beacon of hope, and she dreamed of becoming a teacher, Ms. Ito said. "Kakenya believed that with an education, she could create a different life and she forged a path no other girl from her village had taken. In a culture where girls do not look boys in the eyes, and where daughters do not address their fathers directly, she explained how she had made a deal with her father to allow her to postpone her marriage and finish school."
Ms. Ntaiya is now raising funds to help complete the school’s dormitory in time for the January 2011 semester. "With girls having to take care of the home and farm before and after school – gathering wood, bringing water, milking the cows, preparing meals, it is nearly impossible for them to study," she said. "Plus, it is not safe for them to make the 4- and 5-mile walk to and from home as it gets dark. By having a dormitory, girls can be girls, they can study, and we can protect them from any harmful elements."
Ms. Ntaiya met Ms. Ito, co-founder of Seeds to Sew International Inc., at the Aspen Environmental Forum last summer.
Immediately inspired by Kakenya’s story and her vision, Ms. Ito agreed that Seeds to Sew would explore programs with her that would help generate funds for her school and the village.
"Kakenya Ntaiya is the living example of how investing in one girl’s education, can create a ripple effect, in creating broader, positive changes for communities within the developing world," said Ms. Ito. "The world is getting flatter – the economic and political stability of countries half the world away directly impacts the well-being and security of our lives here in America. We must invest in women and girls, not only because it is the right thing to do, but because it is our best hope for ensuring security and peace in the coming years."
To make a donation, visit Kakenya’s website at www.kakenyasdream.org.
For more information on Seeds to Sew, visit www.seedstosew.org, or the Hopewell-Keroka Alliance website at www.hkalliance.org.
Readers also may contact Ms. Ito at 558-2169 or Blair Turner, development manager, at 306-8747.

