The 10,000 Girls program provides girls in the villages of Senegal with the tools to succeed. The program has two interdependent components: education and enterpreneurship.

In the Kaolack region overall, the failure rate for girls is staggering. Only 18% pass to the next grade each year. But for participants in the 10,000 Girls program, the success rate is 68%. More than three times the regional average.

The 10,000 Girls program helps girls stay in school, get the most out of their education, and acquire the skills needed for life-long learning.

How? By providing three simple things…

1. A place to study
2. The time to study
3. Books and basic supplies

...these business pursuits

• Work to ensure the economic sustainability of the 10,000 Girls program;
• Provide real-world business experience for the Young Women Entrepreneurs of Kaolack (Jeunes Filles Entrepreuneuses de Kaolack), a branch composed of girls who have been excluded from school.

It started with girls selling cookies and juices door-to-door to raise money to buy school books. It is now Celebration Baked Goods, a pastry shop and catering service; and Celebration Sewing Workshop, a crafts boutique with a small but growing international clientele.

We currently have a waiting list of over seven hundred girls. And the 10,000 Girls program itself has gone from 20 to 1467 participants in less than six years.

A registered and independently audited 501(c)(3), not-for-profit educational organization, based in Kaolack, Senegal, West Africa.

Founded in 2001 by an American grandmother, Viola Vaughn, who had relocated to Senegal, the 10,000 Girls program has earned regional--and now, increasingly international--recognition for success.