Bellator women’s flyweight champion Ilima-Lei Macfarlane’s scholarship fund has selected five native women to participate in a summer school program focused on native women.

Macfarlane (7-0 MMA, 6-0 BMMA), a native Hawaiian, wants two local recipients to attend her title defense against Alejandra Lara (7-1 MMA, 1-0 BMMA) at Bellator 201, which takes place June 29 at Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula, Calif., and airs on Paramount following prelims on the Bellator app.

The current problem: The event is sold out. Macfarlane, 28, said after local fighters return unsold tickets, she may have a shot at getting them in.

Macfarlane’s reason for hosting the native women goes beyond basking in her glory. She wants to show them a strong female role in the native community.

“I wanted to create the scholarship for these girls to see outside of the world that they know and give them a voice and give them a chance to fight back,” MacFarlane told MMAjunkie. “I think that it’s important to be able to use my platform to speak out about things that I feel passionately about.”

In March, Macfarlane started The Ilimanator Inaugural Scholarship to send native girls to Intertribal Youth Programs around the world. She describes the program as focused on indigenous knowledge and education, “something that’s often overlooked or completely missing from a Western curriculum.”

A cultural anthropology graduate from San Diego State with a master’s degree focused on indigenous studies, Macfarlane was inspired to give native women more opportunities to learn outside their comfort zone.

“I think it’s really important for other natives to know their culture and know their roots and keep their identity strong,” she said.

MacFarlane cites high rates of violence and murder of which native women are victims as another motivating factor.

“Sometimes, all it takes is for them to tell someone to (expletive) off, don’t touch me, and that’s enough to keep them from getting assaulted,” she said.

The scholarship raised enough money to send five women through the program. It just so happened that the application process came at the same time Macfarlane was preparing for her fight at Bellator 201.

“I’m in the middle of a weight cut, and I did not want to look through a bunch of applicants and have to choose,” MacFarlane said. “But once I did it, I was in tears with a lot of their stories.

“I’m really excited for this fight to be over so I can go meet these young ladies and spend time with them.”

With any luck, there will be a few tickets left so she can great them after she steps out of the cage.

For more on Bellator 201, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.