Keep Maasai Girls Learning in Kenya

"My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together."- Desmond Tutu

There's a word in Swahili –– Umoja –– that translates to "unity." Umoja is both a principle and a practice of people living harmoniously together with each other and the planet. 

When we're in the field with our Maasai staff in Kenya we see Umoja in practice every day, and it was no different on the trip we've just returned from. We see it in the many women's empowerment groups that our team have organized in their communities who collectively identify and support the most vulnerable children in their communities –– creating a safety net to ensure they don't fall through the cracks. We see it in our trusted driver Momposhi, a local Maasai leader who never fails to stop for the women hailing his car from the roadside to see if they need a ride to the clinic for a sick child. We see it in our staff and Team Angaza volunteers, a good number of whom used their own savings three weeks ago–– as they do at the start of each new school term –– to pay school fees for many children who are not their own. 

But it's also true that Umoja doesn't exist for girls and women in many deeply traditional Maasai communities. Practices such as child marriage, FGM, and gender violence occur when one subgroup of people fails to see how certain beliefs, norms, and practices may be creating harm for a different subgroup in their community. And by default, failure to see the harm created for one group means an inability to see how the damage ultimately ripples out to reduce the harmony for us all.  

At the foundational level, our programs all stem from a desire to increase Umoja among the people and communities where we work. We can only be whole when we recognize that all of us –– including girls –– are equal human beings who also have hopes and dreams for a future in which they too get to make decisions about the course of their lives. History shows that when they can do so, not only do their own lives improve but the lives of their communities do as well. Because our existence depends on each other.

Our latest program in Kenya, Participatory Video, aims to use the tools of media to help those with power in Maasai communities better see the humanity of the most marginalized who do not typically have an opportunity to be seen or heard:  Maasai girls. By sharing stories of their hopes and challenges through video in their own voices, Maasai girls –– especially those who have had babies or married at a tender age and dropped from school –– have a new way to have their voices heard by the men who so often decide their futures. Because it's impossible to listen to their stories and not see that they too have dreams and rights; that they too have an important role to play in their communities. 

As we write these words our staff are working with a small group of out-of-school teenage girls on a PV project in the border town of Olposomoru. It's the fourth group our staff have worked with to date and our third community. And nearly every time the message each group of girls has chosen to focus on as the collective theme for their video remains the same: A desire to return to school and avoid getting married off at young age –– even after pregnancy. 

"Peace is not just the absence of conflict," noted Desmond Tutu's countryman Nelson Mandela. "Peace is the creation of an environment where all can flourish regardless of race, colour, creed, religion, gender, class, caste or any other social markers of difference." The reason we love Participatory Video is because it's such a powerful tool for moving the needle on the narratives that constrain Maasai girls' futures –– shifting them from versions that depict them as subjects whose futures are decided by fathers and uncles to new stories that show their full and amazing capacities; nurture their flourishing; and encourage their fathers, families, and communities to support them to reach their dreams. 

Links:

• Video of the team in Loita creating their first-ever video

"Africa changes you forever, like no place on Earth. Once you have been there, you will never be the same.” - Brian Jackman

Our recent trip to Kenya was, as always, rich with beauty and wonder, and also, sadly, with too many moments bearing witness to the deep struggles of many girls. We met 14-year-old Jennifer, a bright and hopeful 9th grader who became orphaned after her parents died three years ago when she was just in sixth grade. We met Jennifer's classmate, a sweet 15-year-old named Happiness who dreams of becoming a guide in the conservancies that border her school because she now sees women becoming professional guides there and how those jobs allow them to take care of their families. We spent time with the quiet and dignified Elma, a 15-year-old who has to borrow a school uniform and clothes from different classmates each week because her stepfather refuses to support her at all – but who continues to get herself to school each day so she can create a better future for herself. 

Stories like Jennifer's and Elma's pain us deeply. But we also know, from experience, that the resilience of the girls in the regions where we work is often astounding. That's why we believe that with belief, support, and the opportunity to continue their educations through affordable secondary schools, Jennifer, Happiness, Elma, and countless girls like them can still steer their way to create brighter futures. We see it every day.  

Our recent trip also offered reminders that these girls aren't fighting their battles alone. On each trip to Kenya, we meet individuals working amid the most challenging of circumstances to ensure that girls continue to have the opportunity to pursue their dreams. Daniel, the principal at Elma and Jennifer's school, created a fund to support the 100 most vulnerable children in his school's catchment area. He also intervened three years ago when the extended family members who took Jennifer in after her parents died planned to marry her off because they didn't feel they could pay for another mouth to feed or another child's school fees. We also visited with Esther and her nine-year-old granddaughter Nanau on this trip, nearly a year to the day we first met them. On that morning a year ago, Esther had just been returning from an exhausting midnight trip across the Tanzanian border to rescue Nanau after learning that her father was planning to arrange an early marriage for her against her mother's wishes. Nanau has been safe and in school ever since that harrowing night, growing into a sweet and confident girl under her grandmother's kind and watchful eye. 

The dedication of individuals like Daniel, Esther, and of our staff and Team Angaza volunteers to help girls in southern Kenya humbles us daily. The circumstances they work in are often challenging and exhausting. We remain ever conscious that none of our work would be possible without it, nor without the dedication and support of all of you, the committed community who support their work in the field. Ashe Oleng (thank you ) from the bottom of our heart for your continued generosity and caring. It makes all the difference for so many lives across the world. 

Links:

• Free Event: October 9 Evening wiith Together Women Rise
• For the Good's website