GTL has a few defining strengths. One is that we are narrowly targeted to supporting secondary school girls in East Africa, by paying their full fees for four or more years at an African boarding school provided they maintain their academic performance. Parents of girls will fund schooling for their sons before paying for their daughters' education, because culturally, a son will return to his family after marriage and bring with him his bride and his (paid for) education to enhance the family. A daughter's education is seen as a lost investment by her parents, since she'll follow her husband to his family's home after marriage. Uneducated daughters are routinely sold into marriage for a couple of cows in rural East Africa.
Beyond this narrow targeting of young East African women, we enjoy a targeted endowment which pays the greatest part of our overhead costs of running GTL. Most of the rest of our overhead is covered by donations from board members allowing nearly all (over 90%) of your donation to be sent to our nearly 300 young women in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. We are proud and successful.
Growth Through Learning is a tremendous organization to work with. After travelling to Africa in 2002 on a safari I just could not leave without wanting to assist those in need. GTL has afforded me with that opportunity. Low overhead assures me that the bulk of the money I donate yearly goes to scholarships. I know that I have helped change the lives of many young women in E. Africa which is extraordinarily satisfying.