The Butterfly Project
The Butterfly Project scholarship fund was founded by Carole Peccorini after her volunteer experience in Kenya and Uganda in 2005. Carole was deeply moved by orphaned adolescent girls who could not pursue higher education due to a lack of financial support, and were often forced into early marriages.
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 candidates are identified by VV Partner Directors who recognize a particular girl’s maturity, motivation, discipline, ability, and commitment to serving her community, but who could never attend college due to her economic situation. Candidates complete an application process, under the guidance of the VV Partner Director, and if selected, are mentored by the director throughout their college experience. Young women can be selected for the scholarship either by the scholarship committee or by a donor.
Scholarships are awarded in the amount of up to $6,000 USD, and are distributed each year in up to $2,000 allotments over three years. Awards are designed to cover the costs of school registration, tuition, books, room, board, and transportation to and from home for holidays.
The Butterfly Project provides vital support, mentoring and funds for young East African women so they can achieve higher education degrees in teaching or nursing, and make a positive impact in their home communities. By donating to the Butterfly Project, you will help a young woman have a more secure future.
Get Involved
Email butterflyproject@villagevolunteers.org to learn more about the Butterfly Project, or how you, your family, your workplace, place of worship or even social club can sponsor a promising young woman.
Donate to the Butterfly Project scholarship fund.
2009 College Scholarship Recipients
The following three young women were interviewed by alumni volunteer Sasha Rabsey.
Georgina Nashipai
Angelic Teachers Training College
A beautiful, gapped tooth smile spreads across Georgina’s face as her 1˝ year old daughter Kelsey toddles over to sit on her mother’s lap. Georgina is 22 years old and has three children; Ishmael 8yrs, Laurence 7 yrs and Kelsey. She is Maasai and comes from a polygamist family where her father is married to four wives; each has 10 children for a grand total of 40 siblings. Growing up, Georgina saw the boys in her immediate and extended family always getting priority in education. Georgina attended the local public school where the education was substandard but she had the motivation to study hard and sit for the National Exams for a spot in a local high school. Passing these exams is difficult at best given the poor teaching standards. She took her exam at 13 years of age and passed but her father did not give her any hope of attending because she was to be married to an older man in the village and stay home to raise a family. She was also told that she was to undergo the painful and often fatal process of female circumcision. She refused the circumcision, which is mandatory if a girl is to be considered for marriage by running away. Luckily a community support group convinced her father to let her come home and avoid circumcision.
Georgina’s mother supported her desire to continue with her education and her dream of becoming a teacher. But her dreams would be delayed because at the age of 14 she became pregnant with her first child. Georgina felt useless and was deeply saddened that she would not be able to continue with her education. Fortunately, her mother offered to take care of the baby while Georgina went to school. In her second year of high school she became pregnant with her second child, Laurence. Now Georgina felt completely defeated and thought she would never make it to University. But with her mother’s support and guidance she finished high school.
While watching her children grow, Georgina became very interested in teaching and helping children. She now teaches nursery level at Sirua Aulo Academy of Namunyak Maasai Welfare one of the partners of Village Volunteers. While sitting in Georgina’s class one can see her love and the individual attention she gives to each child. She is patient and sees each child differently and is acutely aware of each child’s strengths and weaknesses. She also has two special needs children in her class and even though she does not have any special needs training, she finds a way to include them in the class lessons by working with their strengths.
Georgina is an inspiring teacher who exudes love, and caring for the children in her class. With her Butterfly Project Scholarship she is devoted to being the best mother and teacher that she can be.
“For a long time, there has been a desire in me to transform our community to the current world standards. It is for this reason that I thought of the best route towards realizing this dream. The road towards an informed decision of how best I can approach this matter has never been smooth. On my day and nights of hassling, I arrived at a point I considered would be the best to achieve and attain the change I would wish to be noted in my community. A ‘profession’, I realized can bring an instant change to the entire community through advising them on the importance of education to our young generation. Having been a practicing teacher for some time now, I realized that I can change the entire society whom I will be handling. Through the teaching profession, I intend to develop, a self-reliant child, wholly molded and ready to approach the radically changing technologies with competence and diligence. With this urge in me, I choose to be a teacher!!” ~ Georgina
Juliet Resiato Ampani
Angelic Teachers Training College
Juliette speaks in a lovely high whisper about her desire to be a primary school teacher in her Maasai community. Working to improve and help her community as well as contributing to the support of her family is very important to her. Her father passed away when she was young and her mother does not work so supporting the family is up to Juliette and her six siblings. Most of her siblings only went through primary school and are either unable to find jobs or make enough money to make much of a difference. Juliette is definitive when she expresses her desire to contribute to the support of her mother and younger brothers and sisters.
Fortunately Juliette’s family is supportive of her wish to continue her studies at a nearby teacher’s college. After two years of study she would have a certificate of teaching that would allow her to teach at the primary and middle school levels. Her inspiration and perseverance come from a few of the teachers she had when she was in school.
Juliette is eager to attend school in the fall in order to avoid an early marriage to an older man in the community who has made advances and proposals to her family. She has seen too many of her school mates get pregnant and married at a young age and does not want this same fate for herself. When I asked why she didn’t want to get an education and then move away from her community she said that becoming a teacher and coming back to her community in the hopes of educating and inspiring other Maasai girls to aspire to more than the fate of genital cutting, pregnancy and marriage by the time they are fourteen would be far more satisfying to her than teaching outside of the community. Juliette has a deep desire to “give back” to her community and her people.
“I seek to be a servant of all. Getting the skills to impart knowledge on young children is a God-given gift and I hope to assist as many children as I could through my education profession. I will cherish to encourage boys and girls in equal measure to put more emphasis on education. I want to help my community to come out of the illiteracy tag that they have held for a long time and move them to realize that they as equal to the task of education like the rest of the communities in the country.” ~Juliette
Sialo Sankei
Kenya Medical Training College
Sialo is a statuesque twenty year old Maasai woman yearning for a college education in order to become a nurse. Her desire is to become a nurse and return to her village and help her people by teaching family planning, the dangers of female genital cutting and AIDS education.
Sialo is from a polygamist family and has twelve siblings; six boys and six girls. She is the first born girl and has been raised in a family where boys are given priority over girls in every aspect of Maasai life. The boys in her family have always been given school fees first because the expectation for Sialo and her sisters is that they would marry an elderly man in the village and raise a family in a polygamist household as well. But this is not the path that she envisioned for herself and exhibits a fire of desire that is going to take her life in a different direction than anyone expects.
Sialo always knew that she could do whatever a boy could do and better. Her belief in herself kept her going through secondary school in a system without any incentives to study hard in order to move on and sit for the National Exams. The National Exams are offered at two levels; one is for acceptance to a high school and the next is for the very few slots available in a highly competitive system at the university level. While everyone around her was barely getting an education due to under qualified teachers and a lack of resources, Sialo was studying on her own and put herself on the path to sitting for the exams.
“I must have hope because I know I can do better than the boys if I am given a chance” is what she told me when I asked what inspired her to work so hard. In 2007 she passed and was accepted at a University but was told by her father that she would not be able to attend because any money available would go to her brothers first. Sialo would have none of that and told her father that she would go even if he didn’t give her the money.
Eventually, he relented but only gave her enough money to attend for one semester without any money for room and board. Sialo’s has been unable to continue due to lack of funds. Her family feels she doesn’t deserve the money and keep dangling and retracting the money for her schooling.
In rural areas it is rare for a girl to pass the National Exams much less a Maasai girl. Mostly, they marry young and become pregnant with no hopes after that of any future education. Maasai nurses are also very rare but these daunting statistics do not hold back this young woman.
“I want to prove I can do anything. I want to come back as a nurse and help change my community because I think my community will listen to me instead of an outsider”.
It was obvious to volunteer Sasha Rabsey who conducted the interview after spending an afternoon with this young woman, that nothing is going to stand in her way of getting that education and bringing change for a better future to her community and her people.
“I want to be a civil servant to nurse people without any discrimination of tribe, race, colour or religion. I am ready to serve people according to my scope of work with respect and dignity to human life. I want to make a difference by being ready to serve and not to be served. The Maasai community as a whole has been taken as ignorant. I want to be an example to them and help them out of their ignorance to some issues like family planning, effects of female circumcision, polygamy and wife inheritance. I’ll be an example especially to the girl child.” ~Sialo
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Kitpek Nadupoi Beatrice
Teachers Training College, Kericho
Twenty-year-old Beatrice is a young Maasai woman who received a Butterfly Scholarship. Below is her story in her words.
"
I want to be a teacher because teaching is a career that will enable me to serve my community. As a teacher, I will be able to improve the lives of all people through young people. I want to make as many members of my community as fruitful as possible to sustain bright futures and to nurture their talents. Teaching is a career that will have a great impact on many of our community members. I also want to establish a foundation for my own bright future through a teaching career. Through teaching, I will be able to influence people of future professions, lawyers, doctors, engineers and even presidents.
The Maasai community will benefit from my Butterfly Scholarship because there is a big shortage of teachers in our area. I will also be a role model to many of our young girls who are not seen in college level education. I will especially strive to assist the girl child and other needy members of our community." ~ Kitpek
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The following two Butterfly Project scholarship recipients worked with alumni volunteer Marisa Dubois.
In their own words...
Hilda Akinyi Ogweny
Haydom School of Nursing
"I am so excited to have this opportunity to share the roots of my interest to be a nurse. When I was a child, I had a few health problems and most often my mother took me to the hospital because she was not sure of what was ailing me and I was her first child. The few times we went there, I just wanted to stay with the nurses because they were so nice. When I was twelve, I had a very serious measles attack and was forced to stop going to school for awhile. Because of its contagiousness, almost everybody alienated me. However, I had one good nurse who would come in the evening and check on me. She would buy me sweets, say sorry to my mother and reassure her that I would be fine. When she came in and after she left, I felt so much better. I felt healthier and happier with her around. By meeting my nurse, I realized how much impact I could have on people's lives if I was in the medicine or nursing field. I also loved her hospitality and humility. She was so gentle to everyone including the strangers whom she met so often.
I want to have the same impact on people's lives. I want to restore their happiness and health. I want to reassure people that no matter how bad our health may seem, somehow, the power is within us to heal and become better. I want to live in a society where children and parents are healthy and assured of a better tomorrow.
I want to become a nurse because I am interested in the profession and believe I can work well with sick, crying and helpless patients. Even the sight of blood does not bother me. I am also ready to work with the community health workers in alleviating malnutrition, HIV/AIDS, malaria and cholera.
I feel this training is a calling from God, and that by pursuing it, I will be answering a very important call. A calling that will see me happy throughout my life because with happy people and healthy patients, I would get so much satisfaction.
Personally, I believe in the larger community belonging anywhere you go. I can only become helpful to a community when I have specific skills. From anywhere, I plan to give the community the best that has been instilled in me by my teachers, lecturers, parents, siblings and society.
From childhood, I lived in very unhygienic places, and I feel that almost half of the diseases we suffer from in Kenya are from the germs around us. Unfortunately, my family could not afford a better living place. With this past experience, I dream of starting a group, or better still, an organization on sanitation. For example, cholera is killing far too many people in my country and this is just an example of the many diseases that are preventable. From my plan, I hope people will get cleaner water, food, clean schools, churches, playgrounds and towns.
I also intend to help girls in puberty who are having their monthly periods to have easier access to sanitary towels and pads. I feel the lack of pads at the start of my menstruation and for other girls affects self esteem and their performance in school through not attending during this time.
Through my further education, my nuclear family especially my siblings, will be a priority since I am the first born. I intend to see them through their schooling and realizing their dreams. My parent will need my help which I will be most willing to give. I also hope my skills will help my society in other bigger and better ways. I intend to prove girl child education discriminators wrong and show them that education is good for every African child by being a good role model to my fellow girls and boys." ~ Hilda
Nancy Atieno Olambo
Haydom School of Nursing
"My name is Nancy Olambo and I am 22 years old. I completed my secondary education at St. Joseph's Secondary School in Oyugis in the Karachuonyo District. I did my secondary school with an aim of being a nurse. I wanted to pursue the course because it is based on one's attitude.
I have always admired the nursing profession since I was young. For encouragement, I have been doing first aid for people with small injuries for many years as I feel that the little pains could cost people their lives. I have done this work whole heartedly and with a lot of sympathy. I usually admire how the nurses and the doctors work and I am convinced that one day I will be like them.
Back in my village, there are several health centers but there is a great shortage of nurses. In the biggest health center, there are only two nurses who do all the work so the patients have to wait the whole day since there are insufficient services available. I wish to train so that I can voluntarily work together with the nurses and bring the needed changes. There are instances where children die back in the village because their parents are not willing to take them to the hospitals claiming that they would not get treated in time. So I believe that when I am through with my course, I can help reduce the death rates.
Unfortunately, there are some ignorant mothers who still give birth in their homes. I believe it is a serious risk both to the mother and the baby. After I finish my course, I will convince mothers to attend the PMTCT services offered in the hospitals. These young children whose lives are risked during birth are the ones that will make our future and their families must ensure their safety.
Nursing is such an interesting, amazing and professional course as it involves a lot of self giving, voluntary work, self dedication, and positive attitude which yields so much to the community. I sincerely thank The Butterfly Project for offering such opportunities.
It is still a great problem for a girl to be educated in the village. Most parents believe that it is a waste to educate a girl because they feel that girls never aspire to higher levels. When I stand out as a qualified professional lady through my school, no parent will still be willing to keep their daughters at home. They will make sure girls are taken to school.
Personally, this will make me happy as I feel that all girls have a right to education. There is also the case of HIV and AIDS awareness. As the boys are given the priority everywhere, they are the ones who take part in the counseling training and girls become discouraged as they shy away being counseled by boys. I will make sure that after my course, the village girls get proper counseling and they will have the opportunity to train other people along with the boys.
There are some few girls who are willing to go to school but are not capable of paying to pay for it. Once I have a salary, I will make sure I make good use of the money so that part of it goes to such precious assistance. I would like to offer and help one deserving girl with her school fees all through higher education. I feel good when I assist others because I know how it feels when I have received assistance. As my family is not very well off, I will also be able to help them with financial support. I look forward to serving my community with self dedication, a positive attitude and overall commitment as I receive further training." ~ Nancy
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Cherlene Atieno Obok
Kabarak University - Kabarak, Kenya
"I would like to train for and join the teaching profession because I believe that it gives me an opportunity to make my contribution and give back to society. Some of the great people in my life are my teachers because of the contribution they have made to make me what I am today, especially those that went beyond the call of duty to give all that they could. These are the people who have made me believe that I have what it takes to be whatever I want to be. Giving me an opportunity to pursue this course in itself is giving me the opportunity to offer similar services to other deserving children, many of whom statistics have proved lose hope in themselves and totally lose out on realizing their dreams.
Being a first born in my family, I have always aspired to be the best example to my siblings. I believe in the teaching profession, I want to be able to make the best of myself and give hope and direction to those who may look up to me. Many times I have had to assist my mother to give guidance to my sisters and brothers. I would wish to be better equipped so as to be able to undertake this role with better results.
Teaching as a profession is very dynamic and requires that one updates oneself regularly. I like to read widely and I constantly challenge my own thoughts, aspirations and goals. I believe that teaching would offer me greater opportunities to keep abreast with the ever changing demands and challenges of my time and to be able to go further to offer solutions. I know that in teaching I will always find opportunities to better myself and hence add more value to the kind of work I do and contributions I make.
It is also encouraging for me to know that whatever contribution teaching allows me to make will affect not only those that I touch directly, but that they may also touch others positively, hence being able to touch generations upon generations to come.
I am a 21 year old first born daughter in a family of five children. My father passed on when I was in secondary school. At this time, we went through a very rough time psychologically and even my studies suffered. My friends and some of my teachers were very supportive. It was through this kind of support and God's help that I was able to go through school and attain the grades I did.
In my experience I know that there are very many children who go through the kind of pain that I went through and probably more due to various reasons. I also know that there aren't many people who are able to take time to understand and empathize with support to hurting children. I feel that after going through what I have gone through, it is my duty to find opportunities such as the ones found in teaching to make my contribution to society. I feel I am in a better position to not only teach as the curriculum states but to go further and contribute to making another generation more equipped to cope with the various challenges that they may have to go through in life." ~ Cherlene
Karen Kaitano
Lake Institute of Tropical Medicine - Kisumu
“When in college, I can volunteer with a medical facility. I can provide medical care in various hospitals to treat the sick.
When I complete my training, I will work as an intern in the community. I will visit various areas in the community treating them and curing them. Those having physical or emotional sickness, I can console them and also comfort them when necessary.
After internship, I can start a project where I can educate the community at large about their health and the importance of protecting their lives.
Lastly, after internship, I can also pursue my education and become a doctor. When I am physically stable I can also sponsor other girls who are interested in pursuing the same course.
In the community, I will also serve as a servant to provide equal opportunity to every individual. There will be no discrimination between the rich and the poor because we all people equal before God.”
~ Karen
