Ask what volunteers do for Maasai Girls Rescue Center, and the better question is what they don’t do. Volunteers are the reason we can make a promise many donors rarely hear: 100% of public donations go to the care of the girls.

Here is how that works. Every nonprofit has work that must get done: bookkeeping, legal filings, websites, donor communications, and the systems that keep an organization accountable. At MGRC, that work is done by volunteers. Our founder, Rick Morro, is unpaid. Our U.S. Board, including President Bruce Hammond and Treasurer Joyce Hammond, serves pro bono, and so does our marketing and fundraising team. Administrative and fundraising infrastructure is covered by angel donors and GrowthPoint, not by your gift. The only people paid from program resources are the Tanzanian House Mothers, Teachers, and staff who care for the girls every day, led on site by director Elisante Loi Laizer. Meet the team→.

So when you give, your gift pays for meals, housing, medical care, clothing, counseling, school, and training for the more than 70 girls who call our ecoVillage in Karatu home. That promise is part of a larger idea. We raise each girl to become a financially independent, self-reliant woman, and we run the organization the same way we raise her: as a problem-solving enterprise, not a perpetual-aid charity. Volunteers are how a small organization with a big mission stays lean enough to keep its word.

Volunteers take many forms

No two volunteers bring the same gift. Here are a few of the ways they show up. If you don’t see yourself here, reach out. We will find a place for your talent.

Business and technology volunteers

Our board of directors gives time and expertise so the team in Tanzania has the resources, direction, and support to do its work well. Volunteers like Victoria manage our website and social media. Others share MGRC’s mission with current and future supporters. And volunteers like Kelly help maintain the custom business system, built pro bono by GrowthPoint, that tracks each girl’s profile, education plan, and results alongside farm production, expenses, and capital projects. Most donors never see this back-office work, but it is how we measure results instead of simply asserting them, and it is why you can look at the numbers yourself on our Financial Information page.

Mentoring volunteers

Teddie, a Maasai woman and founder of the Maasai Women’s Health Organization, volunteers regularly at the ecoVillage. She teaches the girls about health, life skills, and the challenges Maasai women face and how to meet them. When Teddie shares her story, the girls see a future that looks like their own: proof that education, resilience, and confidence can make them leaders in their community. Daniela, a teacher from Switzerland, spent her sabbatical with the girls. She introduced them to local business leaders, arranged job-shadowing sessions so they could explore careers, and encouraged them to step outside their comfort zones. She left the girls and our social workers with tools they still use, and she continues to meet with the girls virtually. Another volunteer holds regular calls with the older girls on conversation and social skills, the everyday confidence that matters when you run a business, work in hospitality, or serve customers.

Visiting and hands-on volunteers

Some volunteers come to Karatu on hosted visits to tutor, teach crafts and cooking, read, play, and work alongside the girls in the garden. Volunteers like Cammy return again and again, and the girls know her well. Others give from home, sewing dresses or donating laptops.

Every visit is arranged around the girls’ school days and routines, because the ecoVillage is first and foremost their home.

Where it all leads: her education

Volunteers don’t replace the Tanzanian caregivers and teachers who raise the girls. They multiply what those caregivers can do, and the results show up where they matter most. Most of our girls arrive having never attended school. Today, 75% rank in the top 25% of their class.

This June, 52 girls took part in our first Learn & Earn pilot: 30 days, four teams (Baking & Entrepreneurship, Animal Care, Plant Nursery, and the MGRC Store). The baking team tracked real sales and a real profit and won seven new customers from outside the ecoVillage. That is what the skills our staff and volunteers teach look like in practice: a girl learning to price, sell, serve, and earn.

This holiday season, we will invite our supporters to invest in exactly that. Her Education, Her Choice, our 2026 Education Fund campaign, will support tuition, on-site vocational training, Learn & Earn, life skills, and the computer lab for the year ahead. And because of our volunteers, 100% of every gift will go to the girls. Watch for it in the coming weeks.

Share your talent

We are especially looking for volunteers skilled in videography, photography, and storytelling: people who can help tell the girls’ stories with the dignity they deserve. Many roles can be done remotely, from writing and social media to fundraising and marketing. If you have wondered how you might help, know that your talents are needed. Learn how to join our volunteer team →

It is all about the girls.