WEBVTT

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There's a group of people in Kenya,

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people cross oceans to go see them.

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These people are tall, they jump high,
they wear red and they kill lions.

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You might be wondering,
who are those people? 


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These are the Maasais.

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And you know what's cool?

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I'm actually one of them.
(Laughter)

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The Maasais, the boys are brought up
to be warriors, 


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the girls are brought up to be mothers.

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When I was five years old,
I found out that I was engaged,

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to be married as soon as I reach puberty.

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My mother, my grandmother, my aunties,

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they constantly reminded me 
that, "Your husband just passed by."

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(Laughter)
Cool, yeah?

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And everything I had to do from that moment

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was to prepare me to be 
a perfect woman at the age of 12.

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My day started at five in the morning,


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milking the cows, sweeping the house,
cooking for my siblings,

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collecting water, fire wood.


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I did everything that I needed to do,
to become a perfect wife

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I went to school not because
the Maasai women all go to school.

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It's because my mother 
was denied an eduction

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and she constantly reminded
me and my siblings that,

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she never wanted us 
to live the life she was living.

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Why did she say that?

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My father worked 
as a policemen in the city,

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he came home once a year, we didn't see him
for sometimes even 2 years.

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And whenever he came home, 
it was a different case.

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My mother worked hard in the farm 
to grow crop so that we can eat,

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she read the cows and the goats 
so that she can care for us.

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But when my father came,
he would sell the cows,

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he would sell the products we had

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and he went and drank 
with his friends in the bars.

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Becasue my mother a women, 
she was not allowed to own any property

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and by default everything in my family,

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anyway, belonged to my father
so he had the right.

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And if my mother ever questioned him, 
he'd beat her, abused her

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and really, it was difficult.

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When I went to school, I had a dream, 
I wanted to become a teacher.

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Teachers looked nice, they wear 
nice dresses, high-heeled shoes --

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I found later that they were 
uncomfortable, but I admired it.

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(Laughter)

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But most of all, the teacher 
was just writing on the board --

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not hard work, that's what I thought,

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compared to what I was doing at the farm, 
so I wanted to become a teacher.

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I worked hard in school, 
but when I was an eight grader,

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it was a determining factor.

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In our tradition, there's a ceremony that girls
have to undergo to become a woman.

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And it's a right of passage to womanhood.

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And then I was just finishing my eight grade 


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and that was a transition 
for me to go to higschool,

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this was the crossroad.

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Once I go through this tradtion 
I was going to become a wife.

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Well, my dream of becoming a teacher 
will not come to pass.

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So I had to come up with a plan 
to figure these things out.

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I talked to my father, I did something
that most girls have never done.

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I told my father, I will only go through this 
ceremony if you'l let me go back to school.

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The reason why, if I ran away, my father will 
have a stigma, people will be calling him,

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"The father of that girl who 
didn't go through the ceremony."

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It was a shameful thing for him 
to carry the rest of his life.

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So he figured out - well, he said,

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"OK, you'll go to school
after the ceremony."

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I did. The ceremony happenned,
it's a whole week long of excitments.

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It's a ceremony, people are enjoying.

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And the day before 
the actual ceremony happens,


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we were dancing, having exceitments

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and through all the night,
we did not sleep.

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The actual day came 
and we walked out of the house

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and we were dancing,

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as we danced and danced 
and we walked out of the courtyard

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and there were a bunch of people waiting, 
they were all in a circle.

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And as we dance and dance, 
and we approach this circle of women -

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men, women, children everybody was there.

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There was a women
sitting in the middle of it

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and this women was waiting to hold us,

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and I was the first, there were my sisters
and a couple of other girls.

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As I approach her, she looked at me 
and I sat down and I opened my legs.

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As I opened my leg, another women came, 
and this women was carrying a knife.

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And she carried the knife
she walked towards me,

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and she held my clitoris,
and she cut it off.

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As you can imagine, I bled. I bled.

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After bleeding for a while, 
I fainted there after.

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It's something that so many girls -
I'm lucky I never died, but many die.

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It's practice with no anaesthesia, 
it's a rusty old knife

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and it was difficult.

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I was lucky because my mom
did something that most women don't do

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three days later, 
after everybody has left the home

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my mom went and brought a nurse.

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We were taken care of,
three weeks later I was healed

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and I was back in high school.

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I was so determined to be a teacher now

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so that I can make a difference
in my family.

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Well, while I was in high school, 
something happened,


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I met another young gentlemen
from our village

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who had been to the university of Oregon.

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This man was wearing 
a white T-shirt, jeans, a camera,

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white sneakers -
and I'm talking about white sneakers.

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There's something about clothes I think
and shoes. (Laughter)

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And this was in a village 
that didn't even have paved roads,


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it was quite attractive.
(Laughter)

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I told him, "I want to go
to where you are,"

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because this man looked very happy
and I admired that.

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And he told me,

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"Well, what do you mean you want to go, 
don't you have a husband waiting for you?"

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And I told him,

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"Don't worry about that part,
just tell me how to get there."

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This gentlemen, he helped me.

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While I was in school also, 
my dad was sick, he got a stroke -

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and he was really sick so he really 
couldn't tell me what to do next.

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But the problem is my father 
is not the only father I have.

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Everybody who is my dad's age, male, 
in the community, is my father by default.

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My uncles, all of them,
they dictate what my future is.

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So the news came, 
and I applied to school 


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and I was accepted to Randolph-Macon 
Woman's College, In Lynchburg, Virginia

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and I couldn't come 
without the support of the village

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because I needed to raise money
to buy the air ticket.

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I got a scholarship,
but I needed to get myself here.

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But I needed the support of the village

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and here again, 
when the men, the people heard 


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that a women had gotten 
an opportunity to go to school

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they said, "What a lost opportunity,

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this should have been given to a boy 
we can't do this."

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So I went back, 
and I had to go back to the tradition.

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There's a belief among our people 
that morning brings good news.

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So, I had I to come up with something
to do with the morning

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because there's good news in the morning.

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And in the village also there's one chief 
or person, male, an elder

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if he says "Yes,"everybody
will follow him.

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So I went to him, very early
in the morning, as the sun had rised,

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the first thing that he sees 
when he opens his door is me.

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"My child, what are you doing here?"

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"Well Dad, I need help, can you support me
to go to America?"

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I promised him that I'll be the best girl,
I will come back

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anything they wanted after that, 
I will do it for them.

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He said, "Well, but I can't do it alone."

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He gave me a list of other 15 men 
that I went, 16 more men.

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Every single morning
I went and visited them.

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They all came together - the village, 
the women, the men.

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Everybody came together to support me
to come, to get an education.

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I arrived in America, 
as you can imagine, what did I find?

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(Laughter)
I found snow,

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I found Walmart,

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vacuum cleaners 
and lots of food in the cafeteria.

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I was in a land of plenty.
I enjoyed myself,

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but during that moment while I was here, 
I discovered a lot of things

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I learned that, that ceremony that I went 
through when I was 13 years old

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was called female genital mutilation.

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I learned that it was against the law
in Kenya,

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I learned that, I did not have to trade
part of my body

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to get and eduction, I had a right!

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And as we speak right now,
three million girls in Africa

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are at risk of undergoing through
this mutilation.

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I learned that my mom
had a right to own property,

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I learned that did not have to abused 
because she was a women.

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Those things made me angry.

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I wanted to do something.

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Every time I went back, I found 
that my neighbours' girls

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were getting married,
they were getting mutilated.

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And after I graduated from here,
I worked at the UN, I went back to school

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to get my graduate work, the constant cry 
of these girls was on my face.

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I had to do something.

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As I went back, I started
talking to the men,

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to the village, and mothers and I said,

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"I want to give back
the way I had promised you

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that I would come back and help you.

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What do you need?"

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As I spoke to the women, they told me,

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"You know what we need?
We really need a school for girls."

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Because there had not been
any schools for girls.

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And the reason they wanted
the school for girls

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is because when a girl is raped 
when she's walking to school

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the mother is blamed for that.

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If she got pregnant 
before she got married,

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the mother is blamed for that 
and she's punished, she's beaten.

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They said, "We wanted to put our girls
in a safe place."

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As we moved, 
and I went to talk to the fathers,

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he fathers of course, 
you can imagine what they said,

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"We want a school for boys."

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And I said, well, there are a couple
of many men from my village

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who had been out
and they've got an education

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why can't they build a school for boys 
and I'll build a school for girls?

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That made sens and they agreed.

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And I told them, I wanted them to show me 
a sign of commitment

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and they did.

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They donated land where we build
the girls' school, we have.

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I want you to meet 
one of the girls in that school.

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Angelene came to apply for the school

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and she did not meet 
any criterias that we had.

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She's an orphan, yes. 
We could have taken her for that,

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but she was 12 years old
and we were taking in girls

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who were in the fourth grade.

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Everybody were telling us Angelene 
had been moving from one place, 


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because she's an orphan,
she has no mother, she has no father,

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moving from one grandmother's house
to another one

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from aunties to aunties, 
she had no stability in her life.

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And people said, and I looked at her
I remembered that day,

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and I saw something beyond 
what I was seeing in Angelene

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and yes she was older 
to be in fourth grade, 


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we gave her the opportunity
to come the class.

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Five months later, there is Angelene.

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A transformation had begun in her life

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Angelene wants to be a pilot
so she can fly around the world

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and [make] a difference.

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She was not the top student 
when we took her,

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now she's the best student
not just in our school, 


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but in the entire division that we are in.

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She's showing different, that's Sharon, 
that's five years later,

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that's Avaleen, five months later, 
that's the difference that we are making

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As a new dawn is happening in my school

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A new beginning is happening,

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as we speak right now 
125 girls will never be mutilated.

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125 girls will not be married
when they are 12 years old.

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125 girls are creating 
and achieving their dreams.

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This is the thing that we are doing -

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giving them opportunities
so they can rise.

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As we speak right now, 
women are not being beaten


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because of the revolutions 
we've started in our community.

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(Applause)

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I want to challenge you today

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you're listening to me because 
you are here very optimistic.

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You are somebody who is so passionate

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You are somebody who wants
to see a better world.

00:14:08.730 --> 00:14:11.933
You are somebody who wants to
see the war end.

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No poverty.

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You are somebody who wants to 
make a difference.

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You are somebody who wants to 
make our tomorrow better.

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I want to challenge today
to be there first -

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because people will follow you.

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Be the first - people will follow you

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Be bold - standup.

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Be fearless.

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Be confident.

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Move out because
as you change your world,

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as you change your community,

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as we believe we are impacting 
one girl, one family, 


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one village, one country at a time.

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We are making a difference.

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So if you change your world,
you're going to change your community,

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you're going to change your country.

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And think about that, 
if you do that and I do that,

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aren't we going to create a better future,

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for our children, for your children,
for our grandchildren,

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and we will live in a very peaceful world.

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Thank you very much.

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(Applause)