When Cutler left the United States to teach at the first school for Maasai girls in East Africa, she did so in the hopes that her work there would empower young women who faced overwhelming odds.
Proceeds from the sale of this book support education for at-risk Maasai girls..
Working alongside local educators, Cutler emerges transformed by the community she finds in Tanzania and by witnessing the life-changing impact of education on her students.
Twenty years of involvement with this school and its students reveal to Cutler the important impacts of education across time, as well as the challenges inherent in tackling issues of human rights and extreme poverty across vastly different cultures.
In the face of these challenges, these young women believe education offers hope, and so, against all odds, they set off alone―traveling hundreds of miles and even forsaking their families―simply to go to school.
For them, adolescence requires navigating a risky world of forced marriages, rape, and genital cutting, all in the midst of a culture grappling with globalization.
Cutler soon learns that behind their shy smiles and timid facades, her Maasai students are much stronger than they appear.
Captivated by the stories of young Maasai women determined to get an education in the midst of a culture caught between the past and the future, she seeks to empower and support her students as they struggle to define their own fates.
In 1999, Juliet Cutler leaves the United States to teach at the first school for Maasai girls in East Africa.
Working alongside local educators, she was transformed by the community she found in Tanzania.
When Cutler left the United States to teach at the first school for Maasai girls in East Africa, she did so in the hopes that her work there would empower young women who faced overwhelming odds
