Today we’d like to introduce you to Executive Director Wanjiku K. Mwangi.
GTL was founded in 1997, by the late Roger Whiting from Holden Massachusetts, to offer high school scholarships to bright girls in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, 3 East African countries. Roger Whiting was visiting East Africa as a tourist. When he asked a young woman who was serving him in a restaurant why she wasn’t in school, she told him her family could not afford school fees. When she told him how much her school fees were, he realized that he could afford the school fees and that his friends could as well. He came home and, with his wife, Jeanne Lynch Whiting, founded Growth Through Learning, incorporating as a 501(c)(3) in 1997.
These girls are either orphaned, or their families are not able to send them to school as they are in financial constraints. By 2017, over 1500 GTL scholars have graduated with a high school diploma.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Our program in East Africa has been consistently successful in identifying qualified girls for scholarships and providing them with the support they need to graduate from high school. However, here, in the U.S., we confront the reality that fundraising is a perennial challenge. We commit to supporting each girl through 4 to 6 years of education.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Growth Through Learning (GTL) story. Tell us more about the business.
GTL’s greatest achievement is the graduation from high school by more than 1500 girls in East Africa who, without a GTL scholarship, would not have been able to receive a secondary school education.
Multiple studies by international development and government agencies have shown that girls in developing countries who have achieved a high school education:
– Are more likely to participate in the labor force, engage in paid employment, earn more for their families over their lifetimes, and have healthier children who stay in school longer than girls who are not able to attend high school.
– Receive a higher economic return on investment in education than boys. Female secondary education has an 18% return in the form of eventual wages, compared with 14% for males.
– Are up to six times less likely to be married as children than those with little or no schooling.
– Have a greater influence over school enrollment of children than the education level of fathers.
– Have, on average, 2.2 fewer children.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Good luck is having committed friends of GTL who continue supporting GTL year in year out.
Pricing:
- $350 supports a girl for half an academic year
- $700 supports her a full year
- $100 provides transportation to and from her home 3 times a year
Contact Info:
- Website: www.growththroughlearning.org
- Phone: +1-617 684-5572
- Email: execdir@growththroughlearning,org
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/growththroughlearning
- Twitter: GrowthThroughL
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