We are pleased to announce that Empowerment Through Education Foundation (ETE) and Project Education South Sudan (PESS) will join together and operate as one organization, known as Girls With Books!, effective October 1, 2022.

 

The merger of two small but effective organizations will allow us to help more South Sudanese girls and young women obtain an education.  We combine the board member experience of two organizations who have each operated for 17 years in Sudan, and after independence, South Sudan. Since we have operated in different geographic areas of the country, we will now expand our reach. We will work in three locations: Bor, the capital of Jonglei state, Juba, the national capital of South Sudan, and in the refugee camps of northern Uganda, where over 800,000 South Sudanese have fled to escape unrest in their own country.

The merger will allow us to streamline and unify programs under the leadership of Executive Director Micklina Kenyi, who came to the US at the age of 24 as a war refugee in 2004, became a US citizen in 2008 and received her master’s degree from CU in Educational Foundation Policy and Practice in 2014. Daniel Gai - who helped found PESS and who has served in a leadership role for many years - will also continue working with the organization from Bor, South Sudan, where he lives with his family. A well-established network created by both ETE and PESS will continue to assist the efforts of Girls With Books!, both in the Denver area and in South Sudan and Uganda.