What we do is to give them a home, sustenance, medical care, counseling, education and career skills to become independent young women.

Changing lives, one girl at a time

Maasai Girls Rescue Center (MGRC) mission is to transform the lives of the most vulnerable, at-risk Maasai girls in Tanzania

Our vision is to break the cycle of poverty and oppression in Tanzania through a pathway for the most disadvantaged young Maasai girls to become strong, independent women. To provide them a home, sustenance, medical care, counseling, education and career skills to become independent young women, thereby benefitting their community.

Our outreach offers Maasai girls and the Maasai community a path to break the debilitating cycle of child-mortality, extreme poverty, FGM, and abuses of child-marriage. Education is a cornerstone of our work at the rescue center. We believe that education is a way to break this cycle of abuse and poverty.

MGRC has been a part of the Maasai community since 2013 – the locals know us and know our rescue center as a safe place that offers an alternative choice to oppressive cultural norms.

Our mission has grown larger to encompass all within our community. 2021 launched opportunities to fulfill MGRC’s vision of developing a sustainable community to effect long-term change.

This social enterprise is unfolding now in the hills of Karatu, where a 15-acre site was purchased in January to build an ecoVillage.

The ecoVillage consists of an ecoFarm, ecoHomes for 120 girls and their house mothers, a pre-school, a vocational training center, dining hall, sports field and running track, livestock barns and gardens, and ecoLodges for volunteers, visitors and tourists. The ecoLodges also will provide career training, employment and commerce for the local community.

We are not creating orphanages, we are creating a series of family homes where the Maasai girls are loved and raised by Tanzanian ‘house mothers’. By forming family units we are able to recreate a community environment that is focused on nurturing, encouraging, educating, and raising the girls.

The Maasai girls seeking refuge come to us from great distances. They are either behind in their schooling or have never attended school. Some have significant medical problems and no way to get help. Their vision of their future is limited to what they see in their families and villages.

What makes MGRC different?

Maasai Girls Rescue Center works to expand opportunities for the girls – and to broaden their vision of what they can do to make a living. With counseling and guidance, we empower them to make their own choices and assume responsibility for their decisions.

Interested Maasai girls and community members can get training at the ecoVillage in a variety of occupations related to the ecoLodge and ecoFarm on site – such as cooking, gardening, farming, skilled trades, hospitality and tourism.

MGRC also works with local schools, forging relationships with school officials and contributing support. After school, we provide tutoring.

We started 2020 with six students in preschool, 24 in primary school and one in secondary school. We finished the school year with four in preschool, 45 in primary and one in secondary. 75% of our girls are in the top 25% of their class!

Educational, social, emotional and career development will lead our girls to independent adulthood. This sustainable model is what makes MGRC different!

🎓 Read about Nemoipo, our first student to pass Tanzania’s National Standard 7 test, a requirement for admission to secondary school. She is a role model for younger girls.