Our projects - 2007

June 2008 - Detailed update

Oloosiyioi school project, Maasai Mara, Kenya

In 2007, the 60 million girls Foundation partnered with Free the Children (FTC) to address the daunting array of developmental challenges in the Oloosiyioi community, located in the Narok South District of Kenya, the heartland of the Maasai Mara. In formulating the plans for the project, FTC worked with the local people to better address their needs and to better ensure the long term sustainability of the project.

The initial assessment conducted by FTC illustrates the deep poverty and the paucity of basic education, health services and means of livelihood in the Oloosiyioi community. On the education front, 80% of primary school aged children do not attend school and those that do face a student/teacher ratio of 1:55. The community has no immediate access to health services, and most households do not have safe drinking water or proper sanitation facilities. Average life expectancy is a mere 48 years for women and 50 years for men, compared with 51.3 years for the Kenyan population overall (please see http://hdrstats.undp.org/countries for complete statistics for Kenya). Meanwhile, 90% of the population lives on less than $2 a day.

The project funded by 60 million girls addresses some of these issues by combining the construction of the school with other basic community needs.