The mission of the Bead Society of Eastern Pennsylvania is to encourage and promote interest in beadwork and its related fields through educational programs and social activities.
OUR INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION OUTREACH
The Bead Society of Eastern Pennsylvania has adopted Beads for Education as their international education outreach project. Beads For Education is a not-for-profit 501 (c) (3) organization whose mission is to improve the status of women in the Maasai homelands of Kenya, East Africa. One of the main programs is sponsorship of the education of Maasai girls who come from impoverished families who cannot afford the school tuition fees for their daughters' education. Beginning in 1998 with two girls, Beads for Education's sponsorship program has grown to over 250 girls who have been guaranted their school fees through high school and for some, college.
The Bead Society of Eastern Pennsylvania sponsors one of these
girls, Rose Naibimo. Member Wendy Ellsworth has made a number of trips to Kenya
and has met with Rose Naibimo each trip, taking her gifts
such as shoes, socks, shirts, pens, pencils, backpacks and
head scarves and of cours
e, beads! She is full of enthusiasm
and gratitude for being given the gift of an education at
a qualified private academy. When she graduates from Top Ride
Academy, she will become a BEADS teaching intern for a year,
teaching at a disadvantaged school in either an urban or rural
area. Given the dearth of educated Maasai women, she will
be in an extraordinary position to give back to her people
and be a positive role model for them. None of this would
be possible for Rose without the support from the Bead Society
of Eastern Pennsylvania. The website for Beads for Education is www.beadsforeducation.org
Rose Naibimo, the young girl we sponsor in Kenya
Wendy Ellsworth in Kenya with Maasai beaders