“I Was Engaged When I Was Five” | National Geographic

these girls are going to be forced into
Meritus they’re going to be mutilated
and I noticed I would say this is a
crisis this is a global crisis and
something has to happen we work in a
small Messiah community that is about
250 miles away of Nairobi it’s a very
rural in a place like our community the
girls are just prepared for marriage as
soon as she starts walking she’s
sweeping the house she’s cooking for
people she takes care of other siblings
she’s constantly doing water make her a
perfect mother and with this expectation
at the time that they are they reach
puberty they are prepared actually for
manage the undergo through the female
genital cutting which is a horrible
practice that happens to them and after
that she’s married
the statistic says among the masses over
90% of girls were under 15 I married
some of them are even married when
they’re nine years old I grew up in the
community I was engaged when I was five
years old was supposed to be married
when I was 12 and I went through the
female genital cutting I understand what
it is that gas will go through if you
don’t get cut this a stinking mind that
stigma sticks with your family your
father and everybody around your family
will carry forever so I told my father
if you don’t let me go to school I’ll
run away and you remain with the stigma
and so he agreed I did go through the
hiring and I went to school I knew for
me that the thing that made a difference
in my life was an education being able
to push against all the odds
getting a you know a graduate degree
being in school has made a difference
for me I’d learned that female genital
cutting was outlawed in Kenya I’m
thinking really um because I mean I
didn’t know about it and that just to me
I knew that Wow
all the guys that are going through what
you know through that horrible practice
they should know they should know these
things they knew that the very best
thing that I could do for the women for
the girls in the village was to give
them an education they have the rights
to go to school they have the right to
not be forced into a marriage we have
the right not to be mutilated or you
know they have the right to be children
we started our program by starting a
boarding school I knew when you put the
girls in a boarding school bye-bye to
milking cows in the morning bye-bye to
feeding everybody before you go to
school she would just take care of
herself they’re outperforming in the
district they’re at the top and people
for the first time are focusing on the
girls
imagine they have never known that
female genital cutting is against the
law they have never known that there are
consequences these laws are not taught
in the schools and the kids don’t know
about them but now the guys are like wow
if this is what is happening I am NOT
going to go through it and when the
phallus is no we help them we will help
them go through the system and we ask
them what are your dreams you know wants
to be a doctor wants to be a lawyer and
we ask them so would you be a lawyer if
you get married at 12 like now I have to
keep going in school and this is what
really is amazing about our trainings
because we know that when you give girls
information vital information that they
are not getting anywhere they make the
right choices they make the right
decisions we need to tell that we are
that your dream is not ending in
marriage it’s ending in what you want to
become