Creating a Brighter Future for Young Women and their Communities

The Mission

The Butterfly Project scholarship fund creates college education opportunities for promising young East African women who are committed to serving their rural communities through careers in education or nursing but lack the necessary financial resources to pursue their dreams.

Scholarship recipients are outstanding young women who commit to using their newly-gained skills in their communities while serving as a role model to other young girls.

Check out the video below of Kelvyne, a Butterfly Project recipeint.

The Need

Education plays a crucial role in poverty reduction especially for girls.

Key challenges for female education in Kenya:

• Domestic responsibilities cause girls to drop out of school at an earlier age than boys
• Social norms discourage female education
• The distance students have to travel to attend school creates safety concerns for girls making them vulnerable to rape
• Gender biases reinforce low expectations that are placed on girls

Women’s limited access to education reinforces gender inequalities.  As a result, women traditionally have limited involvement in national, community and family decisions, even in areas that may directly affect them.

The Approach

Scholarship candidates are bright, motivated young women with a commitment to serve their community but who could never attend college due to their economic situation. Female education is a key element in improving individuals’ well-being and societies’ economic and social development.

Benefits to female education:

• Education increases economic productivity.
• Educated women marry later, have fewer children, and are more likely to use effective methods of contraception.
• The more educated the mother, the lower the risk of maternal mortality and the healthier the child.  Child mortality falls by about eight percent for each additional year of parental schooling.

Get Involved

To learn more about the Butterfly Project, or how you, your family, your workplace, place of worship, or social club can sponsor a promising young woman, contact us for more information. Meet some of the inspiring Butterfly Project scholarship recipients .

By donating to the Butterfly Project you will provide a young woman with a more secure and successful future who will have an ongoing impact on her community.

Volunteer with Village Volunteers to work with promising young girls.