I was reminded that I have not blogged in a while. It is because we have been so busy with the girls’ school break, the Christmas holidays and school shopping for the girls.
2019 is starting off great with many good things happening at MGRC. We now have 23 girls living full time at our Center. Our progress has been fast paced and keeping up with the needs of the girls is challenging. We now have a full time staff of 5, two matrons, a chef, an assistant manager/counselor, and a handy man who looks after the cows and does our maintenance. We also have a part time tutor who works with the girls after school.
In order to assure the highest standards possible for our girls we are constantly evaluating care. We strive to provide the best education possible. We made some changes regarding education for some of our girls. Many of the girls who come to us have never attended school. The ones who are over 10 years old we now send to the Longido primary school. This school has a program for accelerated education, so a girl who is already 11 or 12 can be taught and moved up, as quickly as possible, to where she should be if she started at the proper time. This decision was made after seeing the results of the one 14 year old who is participating in this program for a year now. We also looked at nNational Test results and were pleasantly surprised to see Longido Primary rank number 1 in the district in the National 7 exams and number 3 in the National 4 exams. It was a surprise to me as class sizes n this school are large, over 100. We then supplement this program with full time tutors to work with the girls after school and on Saturdays. We have tow tutors now and are looking to hire one more. We believe this will make a huge difference in the girls chances for a quality education.
We also work hard to make sure we are providing highly nutritious food and a well balance meal. Many of you know we purchased two dairy cows last year and they are providing all the milk the girls want to drink. We sell the excess to off-set the cost of dairy feed. We also purchased a freezer so we can buy meat at wholesale prices which will allow us to provide twice the amount of meat for the same costs as before. We are thankful for the generous donations that provided funding for these projects.
We raised money to purchase goats. We are in the process of purchasing female goats. We will sell the offspring and use the profits to help fund our Center. Goat business in this area can be lucrative. This is one of several sustainable projects we are planning to help fund our MGRC expenses. These projects will also be used to teach the girls good business practices.
We still have our challenges. We still need sponsors for 11 girls who are already living at the Center. We had to turn away 6 girls in the last two weeks and have mothers and grandmothers coming weekly to see if we have any openings for their children.
We are blessed 2019 is starting off great but as you read this please consider helping one or more of our girls. Pass the need to your friends and ask them to help. I have never been good at asking for help. I believe this is one of the lessons God is teaching me through this part of my journey. I am not asking for me. I am asking for the lives of these precious girls who deserve a chance to grow into their full potential. If you educate a girl she will educate her children and the whole family, village and tribe benefit.
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