This month, Debby Rooney '70 German will once again travel to Kenya to work with young women on behalf of BEADS for Education, the charitable organization she founded to enhance the status of women in their communities and to promote environmental awareness with a goal of preserving natural resources.

She might talk to a 14-year-old Maasai girl whose beaded key chains are keeping her in school. She might talk with teachers at the Dupotu Women's Group about progress at the school BEADS helped establish in 1993. She might interact with supportive government officials about ways to increase BEADS's effects. Her itinerary will be filled with appointments, and the visit will continue her decade of work, helping her make BEADS self-perpetuating.

"This is an amazing, life changing program," she says. "BEADS basically helps support women's businesses while sponsoring the education of girls in Kenya so they don't get married at 13."

According to Rooney, girls without an education in Kenya can expect to be forced into an arranged marriage to an older man, possibly as a second or third wife, and to bear seven or more children in her lifetime. However, if a girl receives an education, she will likely marry a man of her choice, have fewer children, improve the standard of living for her family, educate her children, have greater self-esteem, and make a positive impact on the environment by choosing to live a more sustainable lifestyle.

To achieve such a difference costs roughly US $30 per month per girl. The reason more Kenyan girls are not educated is that the average monthly income for a family in Kenya is US$25. For the first several years, Rooney orchestrated the program to support fifteen girls. Two years ago, with a change in government in Kenya and greater support from advisors and other contacts in the United States, the group grew to its current size, supporting the education of ninety-seven girls. Currently, the mothers of girls supported by BEADS craft beaded products which are then sold. All of the proceeds, 100 percent, come back to support the girls. Beyond the craftwork itself, a core of women who have been supported by the program take part in community service and a variety of workshops: career counseling, AIDS training counseling, human rights awareness, and more.

Now, with a Web presence and national press coverage in places like Ms., Elle Magazine, African Wildlife News, and dozens of newspapers, BEADS is attracting donors who make outright sponsorship commitments, pledging the US $30 monthly it takes to support the girls. "This year, we have seen a very widespread influence," Rooney says. "Three girls started college who had been in the program for several years. They hope to work for the organization afterward. With their commitment and their success, I expect BEADS will become self-perpetuating."

BEADS has come a long way, as has Rooney herself. Before she knew she wanted to help people, she worked to save animals. A twenty-year veteran environmental educator, Rooney had traveled to Kenya in hopes of saving endangered and mistreated animals. She soon realized she wanted to help the people she met and talked about in her classes. Before BEADS, she had worked at an aquarium and in other environmental activist capacities. But, she says, "My education at Penn State really set me up to do what I am doing. I was a German major, and I took my teacher credits, expecting to work in a school. I didn't realize how important languages would be. I've learned some Swahili, and some bits of other east African languages, but you can get around the world on German."