Oloililai Girls Student Foundation : Background information

Education, Kenya and the Maasai

In line with the millennium development goals, the Kenyan government has introduced free primary education. Even though many problems such as lack of teachers, learning materials and so forth remain unsolved, it is a great achievement and a big step in the right direction.

Secondary School, however, still involves high costs. School fees, transportation, boarding and school uniforms must be paid. The cost for a student in secondary school is around 3000 SEK (30.000 KES) per year. This is a burden far too big for most poor families to bear, even for just one of their children.

The Maasai people, originally nomadic pastoralist, are very marginalised in the Kenyan society today. They have little opportunity to voice their opinions or influence policy makers. The Maasai often live in remote areas, far from influential government representatives or social services, such as hospitals and schools. Their inability to make their voices heard and their opinions count is mainly due to lack of education. Literacy is very low in Kajiado district where Oloililai Girls Student Foundation works.

Obstacles for girls to reach higher education

If a poor Maasai family can afford to educate one or two of their children, the choice almost always falls on the boys. Why is that?

The Maasai community is a very hierarchical and patriarchal society where women have a subordinate position. When a girl gets married the husband pays a bride price to the brides father, often in the form of cattle. After the wedding, the girl moves to her new husbands family which often means that the girl has to leave her own family and her home village completely.

The decision to educate boys instead of girls appears as logical and rational in this context. The girls have a subordinate position in society, they bring in an income in the form of cattle when they are married off that helps the family to survive. The girls also leave the home upon marriage and therefore the money to be invested in a child's education is looked upon as wasted on girls.

Many girls are forced in to early marriages at an age of 14 or 15 sometimes even younger, the parents thus breaking Kenyan law. It is not uncommon for these young girls to be married of to much older men, as they can afford to pay higher bride prices.

Oloililai Girls Students Foundation gives, with your help, girls from a marginalised indigenous community, the chance to continue with their studies after primary school.