Hello, ladies and gentlemen.
I see life as a journey,
I dont know where it is going to end yet,
but I know where it started.
It began 21 years ago, in the highest mountain in Africa
that's mount Kilimanjaro.
I was born in a small village known as Kimana.
I am only 21 years old as you have heard before.
So, I was given my beautiful name that's Nice Nailantei Leng'ete
and I know most of you are having difficulties in remembering my name,
so, just call me Miss Kilimanjaro.
(Laughter)
I want every girl in Kenya to become the woman of our dream.
I would love to stay in a place where women
or girls can speak freely without being judged
and with that -- I mean, we'd like women
first being seen as human beings and then as women.
I made the impossible possible by doing two things,
that's talking to men, which is not allowed in our community,
and I'm also changing female genital cutting to alternative rite of passage.
Female genital cutting is there in our place as you know --
When I was growing up I was tired of seeing some of my girlfriends
dying when they bleed too much,
others are having difficulties when they were giving birth,
and others were called cowards.
I was tired of that and I wanted to make change in Kenya.
It began 21 years ago,
the youngest of three.
My father was called Paul, he was a tall,
handsome and he was a strong Maasai young man.
My mother also, was called Alice
she was black, dark with long hair,
I always remember her for two things:
one thing is that she was too generous
and also the love she had for us.
It began 21 years ago -- I am sorry --
For you to know me well, I had to tell you about my family a little bit,
for you to understand me.
My father had two wives, he was a polygamist,
my mother being one of them.
And my parents [passed] away in --
in 1997 and 1998 and we were left orphaned.
Our secure home was a normal home, moving from one family to another,
finding life being difficult.
I had to believe not to belong to any family
[which] turned out to be a blessing to rise.
Escaping two of my painful things in life --
[forced] marriage and female genital cutting.
For the first time we escaped with my sister, at 4 am in the morning.
[Becasue] that's now the time they do the [cutting.]
For the second time, when we went back home,
we were beaten and we promised not to do it again.
So, the other time, I managed to escape alone.
but my sister was not lucky.
After that, I went to my grandfather's place and I told him
to tell my uncle they should respect my wish,
and then I told them: "I'm going to report them to the government!"
And [then] my grandfather recognized my determination and they respected my wish.
After that all we had gone through,
we toughened up and we knew that we could make it in life.
After ten years we moved to a home, with our elder brother
who was the one who was taking care of me and my sister.
A great opening came up in 2008,
[when] I was taken for a training with AMREF,
A pre-education training within the program called "Nomadic Youth and Reproductive Health Project."
And now it was like a change [for] me 'cause --
I've learned so many things about life risks
and also things about female genital cutting, early marriages,
and I was happy because, when I was out at least I could speak to my people.
And then after the training I saw that there was a need for young people to be informed.
I had one question that kept on bothering me
that was: "How could I mobilize my community?
Mothers, girls, elders and morans.
'Cause change must came from the communities, from inside out.
Where to start? At the top, of course.
I had to receive blessings from my elders,
Elders are old men in my community.
They are the ones who make the decisions.
So, you first have to pass --
You first have to go to them and then they give you blessings.
They are known [as those who don't] listen to women but they could listen to me [kindly].
I also had to talk to mothers and girls,
It's hard for you to get to them,
so I used to look for them during the market days,
so that I could get a good number.
I used to talk with them on the importance of family planning,
importance of delivering [babies] in hospitals
and also the immunization of their kids.
We introduced something new,
that we thought it's [better] then doing the female genital cutting,
that is the alternative rite of passage.
[When] girls [become] women without the cutting.
After that, we also had to talk on things like sexuality and health education.
We have a group of girls from my community,
so we started a CBO, a Community Based Organization,
and we are 20, so main aim of the organization
is how we could empower other girls from our community like us.
And the last 3 years, we were able to rescue over 150 girls
and now they are in school, they are not circumcised.
November this year, elders and women denounced FGM in my neighbour community,
so we can see change is really spreading.
It took time to the other group to accept me.
The other group is a special group because
they are -- It's hard for us, it's sad for us,
we need to talk with them, those are Morans.
Morans are a group of men who are mid-10's and 20's
whose work, normally, is to stay in the bush.
They protect their community, and also they're the ones who protect the lifestock.
And they are also, the group which is at risk
because they are allowed to practice [poligamy]
they are allowed to have multiple partners.
So, they can have sex with every girl they find in the village, because it's allowed.
And then I saw the importance of talking to these men,
because these are our future leaders and they are the ones
who are marring the young girls we are talking with.
So, we used to talk to them on the importance
of the condom usage and having HIV test.
And then, one of the elders told them that it is a matter of life or death,
so they had to choose it for themselves.
Few more joins with Morans and elders, after one year they accepted me,
and I was given a "esiere."
Esiere is a black walking stick,
that simbolizes leadership. I understand --
Now in my community, the elders and morans, and mothers.
We work together to support an alternative rite of passage,
Because for the young men, I think, it is because they had the rumour
that uncut women, we are more interested in sex.
But we know that for now.
My resolve to work harder led by example, to be a change agent
has been further strenghtened by the sudden death of my sister.
She died of malaria while I was spreading reproductive health messages
to the community and the youth.
I've campaigned against malaria in the village,
for every household to have bed nets and great standard of water.
Please join me in bringing meaningful change to my people!
Especially the girl-child in Kenya.
And I want every woman to be the woman of our dreams.
One more last want for you this morning is that --
You need someone's patience for you to make change.
Thank you!
(Applause)