From the President

Although only recently elected President of the Board of Directors, I have watched the success of this organization grow during its ten-year history. I traveled on the same safari as Roger Whiting in 1996, also saw the plight of girls living in extreme poverty, and understood that education was the pathway for their achieving a better life. We are all fortunate that Roger was inspired by this trip and had the abilities and perseverance needed to form our successful non-profit organization.

We recognize that our success has been achieved only because of the generous support of you, our donors. Your gifts have allowed girls to leave their farms and orphanages and attend safe, quality boarding schools in order to become “empowered women.” Some even continue with post-secondary education. They then can develop their own capacities so they will no longer be vulnerable to the ravages of poverty. Best of all, they serve as inspiration and models for other girls in their families and communities. We are happy to share our girls’ successes because we know they will bring you satisfaction from knowing we are using your funds carefully and wisely. We welcome any recommendations that will improve our work.

This issue of our newsletter focuses on the trip that four of our Board members made to East Africa this year. There, we met with our In-Country Scholarship Coordinators, toured the schools, met with heads of schools, and, most importantly, met with our scholarship recipients. These annual visits enable us to judge that our scholarship decisions are providing our students with the education they need. We feel responsible to represent our donors during our visits, to collect performance information, and to make post-visit recommendations.

We extend special thanks to our In-Country Scholarship Coordinators, Florence Nyamu in Kenya, Sister Salome Nambi in Uganda, and Zainab Tekway Sige in Tanzania. They are the caretakers of our mission. They search for students who meet our scholarship eligibility requirements and serve as ongoing liaisons and mentors between the students, families, headmistresses, our Executive Director and the Board. We will always remember the coordinators’ gracious hospitality and the insight, expertise and support provided to us as we examined GTL’s work in East Africa.