WEBVTT

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Hello, ladies and gentlemen.

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I see life as a journey,

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I dont know where it 
is going to end yet,

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but I know where it started.

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It began 21 years ago, 
in the highest mountain in Africa

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that's mount Kilimanjaro.

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I was born in a small village 
known as Kimana.

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I am only 21 years old 
as you have heard before.

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So, I was given my beautiful name 
that's Nice Nailantei Leng'ete

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and I know most of you are having difficulties 
in remembering my name,

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so, just call me 
Miss Kilimanjaro.

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(Laughter)

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I want every girl in Kenya to become
the woman of our dream.

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I would love to stay 
in a place where women

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or girls can speak freely
without being judged

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and with that -- 
I mean, we'd like women

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first being seen as human beings 
and then as women.

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I made the impossible possible 
by doing two things,

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that's talking to men, 
which is not allowed in our community,

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and I'm also changing female genital cutting 
to alternative rite of passage.

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Female genital cutting is there in our place
as you know --

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When I was growing up I was tired 
of seeing some of my girlfriends

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dying when they bleed too much,

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others are having difficulties 
when they were giving birth,

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and others were called cowards.

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I was tired of that 
and I wanted to make change in Kenya.

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It began 21 years ago,

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the youngest of three.

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My father was called Paul, 
he was a tall,

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handsome and he was a strong 
Maasai young man.

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My mother also, 
was called Alice

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she was black, 
dark with long hair,

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I always remember her 
for two things:

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one thing is 
that she was too generous

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and also the love 
she had for us.

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It began 21 years ago --
I am sorry --

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For you to know me well, I had to tell you 
about my family a little bit,

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for you to understand me.

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My father had two wives, 
he was a polygamist,

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my mother being one of them.

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And my parents [passed] away in --

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in 1997 and 1998 
and we were left orphaned.

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Our secure home was a normal home,
moving from one family to another,

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finding life being difficult.

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I had to believe 
not to belong to any family

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[which] turned out
to be a blessing to rise.

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Escaping two of my 
painful things in life --

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[forced] marriage 
and female genital cutting.

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For the first time we escaped with my sister,
at 4 am in the morning.

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[Becasue] that's now the time 
they do the [cutting.]

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For the second time, 
when we went back home,

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we were beaten and we promised
not to do it again.

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So, the other time, 
I managed to escape alone.

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but my sister was not lucky.

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After that, I went to my grandfather's place
and I told him

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to tell my uncle 
they should respect my wish,

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and then I told them: "I'm going to report them 
to the government!"

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And [then] my grandfather recognized 
my determination and they respected my wish.

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After that all we had gone through,

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we toughened up and we knew
that we could make it in life.

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After ten years we moved to a home, 
with our elder brother

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who was the one who was taking care
of me and my sister.

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A great opening came up in 2008,

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[when] I was taken for 
a training with AMREF,

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A pre-education training within the program called
"Nomadic Youth and Reproductive Health Project."

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And now it was like 
a change [for] me 'cause --

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I've learned so many things about life risks

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and also things about female genital cutting, 
early marriages,

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and I was happy because, when I was out 
at least I could speak to my people.

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And then after the training I saw that there was
a need for young people to be informed.

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I had one question
that kept on bothering me

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that was: "How could I mobilize my community?

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Mothers, girls, elders and morans.

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'Cause change must came from
the communities, from inside out.

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Where to start? 
At the top, of course.

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I had to receive blessings
from my elders,

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Elders are old men 
in my community.

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They are the ones 
who make the decisions.

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So, you first have to pass --

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You first have to go to them 
and then they give you blessings.

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They are known [as those who don't] listen to women 
but they could listen to me [kindly].

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I also had to talk to mothers and girls,

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It's hard for you to get to them,

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so I used to look for them
during the market days,

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so that I could get a good number.

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I used to talk with them on
the importance of family planning,

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importance of delivering [babies] in hospitals

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and also the immunization of their kids.

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We introduced something new,

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that we thought it's [better]
then doing the female genital cutting,

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that is the alternative rite of passage.

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[When] girls [become] 
women without the cutting.

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After that, we also had to talk on things like
sexuality and health education.

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We have a group 
of girls from my community,

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so we started a CBO, 
a Community Based Organization,

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and we are 20, 
so main aim of the organization

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is how we could empower other girls
from our community like us.

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And the last 3 years, we were able 
to rescue over 150 girls

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and now they are in school,
they are not circumcised.

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November this year, elders and women 
denounced FGM in my neighbour community,

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so we can see change
is really spreading.

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It took time to the other group
to accept me.

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The other group 
is a special group because

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they are -- 
It's hard for us, it's sad for us,

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we need to talk with them, 
those are Morans.

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Morans are a group of men 
who are mid-10's and 20's

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whose work, normally, 
is to stay in the bush.

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They protect their community, and also they're
the ones who protect the lifestock.

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And they are also,
the group which is at risk

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because they are allowed
to practice [poligamy]

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they are allowed to 
have multiple partners.

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So, they can have sex with every girl 
they find in the village, because it's allowed.

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And then I saw the importance 
of talking to these men,

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because these are our future leaders
and they are the ones

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who are marring the young girls 
we are talking with.

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So, we used to talk to 
them on the importance

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of the condom usage 
and having HIV test.

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And then, one of the elders told them
that it is a matter of life or death,

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so they had to choose it for themselves.

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Few more joins with Morans and elders, 
after one year they accepted me,

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and I was given a "esiere."

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Esiere is a black walking stick,

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that simbolizes leadership. 
I understand --

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Now in my community, the elders and morans,
and mothers.

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We work together to support 
an alternative rite of passage,

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Because for the young men, 
I think, it is because they had the rumour

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that uncut women, 
we are more interested in sex.

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But we know that for now.

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My resolve to work harder led by example, 
to be a change agent

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has been further strenghtened
by the sudden death of my sister.

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She died of malaria while I was spreading 
reproductive health messages

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to the community and the youth.

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I've campaigned against 
malaria in the village,

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for every household to have
bed nets and great standard of water.

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Please join me in bringing meaningful 
change to my people!

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Especially the girl-child in Kenya.

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And I want every woman 
to be the woman of our dreams.

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One more last want for you
this morning is that --

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You need someone's patience 
for you to make change.

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Thank you!

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(Applause)