The Amboseli Wildlife Sponsorship Region began in January 2003 and has grown to 22 sponsored girls (July 2003). Linking with the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), the region is supervised by Paul Ntiati, AWF's Heartland Coordinator. We were searching for the best and brightest girls in the area: girls with the potential to attain a university degree or higher.  Due to the quality of the schools in the region, it was a daunting task.  Every student must take the national test on which they can score a maximum of 500 points for primary school.  We were looking for girls  who scored 350 points or higher and met with little success. We selected 9 girls in elementary school who have moved to private schools and will repeat a year to improve their national standing. Five girls accepted to secondary school were also selected.

Free and compulsory education through 8th grade has been instituted by the new democratic government of Kenya (December 2002).  This is wonderful news but the infrastructure will need a few years to catch up with the ideal.  Since all our sponsorships require a contributory financial payment from the families, we expected many of the girls to move to public school but that didn't happen.  We were pleased that the quality of a better education at a private school is valued and ALL of our sponsored girls are now enrolled at private elementary schools.

Lucy Lashine and her mother are very happy to receive a sponsor.