0:00:18.953,0:00:23.100
There's a group of people in Kenya,

0:00:23.100,0:00:26.872
people cross oceans to go see them.

0:00:26.872,0:00:35.478
These people are tall, they jump high,[br]they wear red and they kill lions.

0:00:35.478,0:00:38.318
You might be wondering,[br]who are those people? [br]

0:00:38.318,0:00:41.288
These are the Maasais.

0:00:41.288,0:00:43.204
And you know what's cool?

0:00:43.204,0:00:47.317
I'm actually one of them.[br](Laughter)

0:00:47.317,0:00:51.384
The Maasais, the boys are brought up[br]to be warriors, [br]

0:00:51.384,0:00:55.129
the girls are brought up to be mothers.

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When I was five years old,[br]I found out that I was engaged,

0:01:00.176,0:01:03.069
to be married as soon as I reach puberty.

0:01:03.069,0:01:05.846
My mother, my grandmother, my aunties,

0:01:05.846,0:01:11.310
they constantly reminded me [br]that, "Your husband just passed by."

0:01:11.310,0:01:14.857
(Laughter)[br]Cool, yeah?

0:01:16.169,0:01:19.250
And everything I had to do from that moment

0:01:19.250,0:01:24.758
was to prepare me to be [br]a perfect woman at the age of 12.

0:01:24.758,0:01:27.289
My day started at five in the morning,[br]

0:01:27.289,0:01:30.405
milking the cows, sweeping the house,[br]cooking for my siblings,

0:01:30.405,0:01:34.968
collecting water, fire wood.[br]

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

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

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It's because my mother [br]was denied an eduction

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and she constantly reminded[br]me and my siblings that,

0:01:54.742,0:01:58.913
she never wanted us [br]to live the life she was living.

0:01:58.913,0:02:00.881
Why did she say that?

0:02:00.881,0:02:05.770
My father worked [br]as a policemen in the city,

0:02:05.770,0:02:11.393
he came home once a year, we didn't see him[br]for sometimes even 2 years.

0:02:11.393,0:02:14.932
And whenever he came home, [br]it was a different case.

0:02:14.932,0:02:20.037
My mother worked hard in the farm [br]to grow crop so that we can eat,

0:02:20.037,0:02:24.141
she read the cows and the goats [br]so that she can care for us.

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But when my father came,[br]he would sell the cows,

0:02:26.805,0:02:29.102
he would sell the products we had

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and he went and drank [br]with his friends in the bars.

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

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and by default everything in my family,

0:02:39.831,0:02:43.406
anyway, belonged to my father[br]so he had the right.

0:02:43.406,0:02:47.801
And if my mother ever questioned him, [br]he'd beat her, abused her

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and really, it was difficult.

0:02:52.245,0:02:57.422
When I went to school, I had a dream, [br]I wanted to become a teacher.

0:02:57.422,0:03:01.513
Teachers looked nice, they wear [br]nice dresses, high-heeled shoes --

0:03:01.513,0:03:04.662
I found later that they were [br]uncomfortable, but I admired it.

0:03:04.662,0:03:07.788
(Laughter)

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

0:03:12.089,0:03:14.514
not hard work, that's what I thought,

0:03:14.514,0:03:19.663
compared to what I was doing at the farm, [br]so I wanted to become a teacher.

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

0:03:23.634,0:03:25.763
it was a determining factor.

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

0:03:30.841,0:03:34.026
And it's a right of passage to womanhood.

0:03:34.026,0:03:37.152
And then I was just finishing my eight grade [br]

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and that was a transition [br]for me to go to higschool,

0:03:39.618,0:03:41.375
this was the crossroad.

0:03:41.375,0:03:46.890
Once I go through this tradtion [br]I was going to become a wife.

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

0:03:51.125,0:03:56.330
So I had to come up with a plan [br]to figure these things out.

0:03:56.330,0:04:00.265
I talked to my father, I did something[br]that most girls have never done.

0:04:00.265,0:04:06.248
I told my father, I will only go through this [br]ceremony if you'l let me go back to school.

0:04:06.248,0:04:12.181
The reason why, if I ran away, my father will [br]have a stigma, people will be calling him,

0:04:12.181,0:04:15.185
"The father of that girl who [br]didn't go through the ceremony."

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

0:04:19.327,0:04:25.262
So he figured out -- well, he said,[br]"OK, you'll go to school after the ceremony."

0:04:25.262,0:04:31.636
I did. The ceremony happenned,[br]it's a whole week long of excitments.

0:04:31.636,0:04:33.871
It's a ceremony, people are enjoying.

0:04:33.871,0:04:36.788
And the day before [br]the actual ceremony happens,[br]

0:04:36.788,0:04:42.820
we were dancing, having exceitments[br]and through all the night, we did not sleep --

0:04:42.820,0:04:46.452
The actual day came [br]and we walked out of the house

0:04:46.452,0:04:47.856
and we were dancing,

0:04:47.856,0:04:50.416
as we danced and danced [br]and we walked out of the courtyard

0:04:50.416,0:04:54.738
and there were a bunch of people waiting, [br]they were all in a circle.

0:04:54.738,0:04:59.863
And as we dance and dance, [br]and we approach this circle of women --

0:04:59.863,0:05:02.415
men, women, children everybody was there.

0:05:02.415,0:05:05.307
There was a women sitting in the middle of it

0:05:05.307,0:05:09.870
and this women was waiting to hold us,

0:05:09.870,0:05:13.787
and I was the first, there were my sisters [br]and a couple of other girls.

0:05:13.787,0:05:23.195
As I approach her, she looked at me [br]and I sat down and I opened my legs.

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

0:05:30.427,0:05:38.570
And a she carried the knife she walked towards [br]me, and she held my clitoris, and she cut it off.

0:05:38.570,0:05:43.477
As you can imagine, I bled. I bled.

0:05:43.477,0:05:48.400
After bleeding for a while, [br]I fainted there after.

0:05:48.400,0:05:54.619
It's something that so many girls --[br]I'm lucky I never died, but many die.

0:05:54.619,0:06:00.821
It's practice with no anaesthesia, [br]it's a rusty old knife

0:06:00.821,0:06:03.820
and it was difficult.

0:06:03.820,0:06:09.433
I was lucky because one -- also, my mom did [br]something that most women don't do

0:06:09.433,0:06:12.266
three days later, [br]after everybody has left the home

0:06:12.266,0:06:14.243
my mom went and brought a nurse.

0:06:14.243,0:06:20.518
We were taken care of, three weeks later [br]I was healed and I was back in high school.

0:06:20.518,0:06:24.186
I was so determined to be a teacher now

0:06:24.186,0:06:27.960
so that I can make a difference in my family.

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Well, while I was in high school, [br]something happened,[br]

0:06:31.554,0:06:37.017
I met another young gentlemen from our village [br]who had been to the university of Oregon.

0:06:37.017,0:06:43.589
This man was wearing [br]a white T-shirt, jeans, a camera,

0:06:43.589,0:06:46.001
white sneakers --[br]and I'm talking about white sneakers.

0:06:46.001,0:06:50.444
There's something about clothes I think[br]and shoes. (Laughter)

0:06:50.444,0:06:55.469
And this was in a village [br]that didn't even have paved roads,[br]

0:06:55.469,0:06:58.329
it was quite attractive.[br](Laughter)

0:06:58.329,0:07:04.544
I told him, "I want to go to where you are," [br]because this man looked very happy

0:07:04.544,0:07:06.888
and I admired that.

0:07:06.888,0:07:08.131
And he told me,

0:07:08.131,0:07:12.763
"Well, what do you mean you want to go, [br]don't you have a husband waiting for you?"

0:07:12.763,0:07:18.775
And I told him, "Don't worry about that part,[br]just tell me how to get there."

0:07:18.775,0:07:21.205
This gentlemen, he helped me.

0:07:21.205,0:07:25.245
While I was in school also, [br]my dad was sick, he got a stroke --

0:07:25.245,0:07:30.522
and he was really sick so he really [br]couldn't tell me what to do next.

0:07:30.522,0:07:34.282
But the problem is my father [br]is not the only father I have.

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

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

0:07:44.374,0:07:46.631
So the news came, [br]and I applied to school [br]

0:07:46.631,0:07:51.570
and I was accepted to Randolph-Macon [br]Woman's College, In Lynchburg, Virginia

0:07:51.570,0:07:55.053
and I couldn't come [br]without the support of the village

0:07:55.053,0:07:57.362
because I needed to raise money[br]to buy the air ticket.

0:07:57.362,0:08:00.990
I got a scholarship,[br]but I needed to get myself here.

0:08:00.990,0:08:03.576
But I needed the support of the village

0:08:03.576,0:08:07.903
and here again, [br]when the men, the people heard [br]

0:08:07.903,0:08:10.926
that a women had gotten [br]an opportunity to go to school

0:08:10.926,0:08:13.251
they said, "What a lost opportunity,

0:08:13.251,0:08:16.883
this should have been given to a boy [br]we can't do this."

0:08:16.883,0:08:21.774
So I went back, [br]and I had to go back to the tradition.

0:08:21.794,0:08:26.936
There's a belief among our people [br]that morning brings good news.

0:08:26.936,0:08:29.647
So, I had I to come up with something[br]to do with the morning

0:08:29.647,0:08:32.579
because there's good news in the morning.

0:08:32.579,0:08:37.912
And in the village also there's one chief [br]or person, male, an elder

0:08:37.912,0:08:41.347
if he says "Yes,"everybody will follow him.

0:08:41.347,0:08:45.160
So I went to him, very early in the morning, [br]as the sun had rised,

0:08:45.160,0:08:49.125
the first thing that he sees [br]when he opens his door is me.

0:08:49.125,0:08:51.361
"My child, what are you doing here?"

0:08:51.361,0:08:55.698
"Well Dad, I need help, can you support me[br]to go to America?"

0:08:55.698,0:08:59.466
I promised him that I'll be the best girl,[br]I will come back

0:08:59.466,0:09:03.643
anything they wanted after that, [br]I will do it for them.

0:09:03.643,0:09:05.399
He said, "Well, but I can't do it alone."

0:09:05.399,0:09:10.643
He gave me a list of other 15 men [br]that I went, 16 more men.

0:09:10.643,0:09:13.942
Every single morning[br]I went and visited them.

0:09:13.942,0:09:17.424
They all came together -- the village, [br]the women, the men.[br]

0:09:17.424,0:09:22.080
Everybody came together to support me[br]to come, to get an education.

0:09:22.080,0:09:25.766
I arrived in America, [br]as you can imagine, what did I find?

0:09:25.766,0:09:29.955
(Laughter)[br]I found snow,

0:09:29.955,0:09:31.690
I found Walmart,

0:09:31.690,0:09:36.306
vacuum cleaners [br]and lots of food in the cafeteria.

0:09:36.306,0:09:41.930
I was in a land of plenty.[br]I enjoyed myself,

0:09:41.930,0:09:47.227
but during that moment while I was here, [br]I discovered a lot of things

0:09:47.227,0:09:52.520
I learned that, that ceremony that I went [br]through when I was 13 years old

0:09:52.520,0:09:55.790
was called female genital mutilation.

0:09:55.790,0:09:59.282
I learned that it was against the law in Kenya,

0:09:59.282,0:10:04.048
I learned that, I did not have to trade[br]part of my body

0:10:04.063,0:10:07.158
to get and eduction, I had a right!

0:10:07.158,0:10:11.411
And as we speak right now,[br]three million girls in Africa

0:10:11.411,0:10:15.677
are at risk of undergoing through[br]this mutilation.

0:10:15.677,0:10:19.144
I learned that my mom[br]had a right to own property,

0:10:19.144,0:10:24.726
I learned that did not have to abused [br]because she was a women.

0:10:24.726,0:10:27.863
Those things made me angry.

0:10:27.863,0:10:29.861
I wanted to do something.

0:10:29.861,0:10:35.061
Every time I went back, I found [br]that my neighbours' girls

0:10:35.061,0:10:36.532
were getting married,[br]they were getting mutilated.

0:10:36.532,0:10:42.072
And after I graduated from here,[br]I worked at the UN, I went back to school

0:10:42.072,0:10:47.740
to get my graduate work, the constant cry [br]of these girls was on my face.

0:10:47.740,0:10:50.360
I had to do something.

0:10:50.360,0:10:54.451
As I went back, I started talking to the men, [br]to the village, and mothers and I said,

0:10:54.451,0:10:58.527
"I wanna give back the way I had promised [br]you that I would come back and help you.

0:10:58.527,0:10:59.774
What do you need?"

0:10:59.774,0:11:01.622
As I spoke to the women, they told me,

0:11:01.622,0:11:03.923
"You know what we need?[br]We really need a school for girls

0:11:03.923,0:11:06.348
because there has not been[br]any school for girls."

0:11:06.348,0:11:08.232
And the reason they wanted[br]the school for girls

0:11:08.232,0:11:11.836
is because when a girl is raped [br]when she's walking to school

0:11:11.836,0:11:13.972
the mother is blamed for that.

0:11:13.972,0:11:17.850
If she got pregnant [br]before she got married,

0:11:17.850,0:11:21.497
the mother is blamed for that [br]and she's punished, she's beaten.

0:11:21.497,0:11:25.300
They said, "We wanted to put our girls[br]in a safe place."

0:11:25.300,0:11:27.962
As we moved, [br]and I went to talk to the fathers,

0:11:27.962,0:11:30.555
he fathers of course, [br]you can imagine what they said,

0:11:30.555,0:11:32.942
"We want a school for boys."

0:11:32.942,0:11:37.685
And I said, well, there are a couple of many men[br]from my village who had been out

0:11:37.685,0:11:39.316
and they've got an education

0:11:39.316,0:11:43.585
why can't they build a school for boys [br]and I'll build a school for girls?

0:11:43.585,0:11:46.755
That made sens and they agreed.

0:11:46.755,0:11:51.861
And I told them, I wanted them to show me [br]a sign of commitment

0:11:51.861,0:11:53.191
and they did.

0:11:53.191,0:11:57.855
They donated land where we build[br]the girls' school, we have.

0:11:57.855,0:12:00.926
I want you to meet [br]one of the girls in that school.

0:12:00.926,0:12:03.691
Angelene came to apply for the school

0:12:03.691,0:12:07.133
and she did not meet [br]any criterias that we had.

0:12:07.133,0:12:10.146
She's an orphan, yes. [br]We could have taken her for that,

0:12:10.146,0:12:15.848
but she was 12 years old and we were taking in [br]girls who were in the fourth grade.

0:12:15.848,0:12:18.957
Everybody were telling us Angelene [br]had been moving from one place, [br]

0:12:18.957,0:12:21.373
because she's an orphan,[br]she has no mother, she has no father,

0:12:21.373,0:12:23.358
moving from one grandmother's house[br]to another one

0:12:23.358,0:12:27.460
from aunties to aunties, [br]she had no stability in her life.

0:12:27.460,0:12:30.837
And people said, and I looked at her[br]I rememberd that day,

0:12:30.837,0:12:35.689
and I saw something beyond [br]what I was seeing in Angelene

0:12:35.689,0:12:38.364
and yes she was older [br]to be in fourth grade, [br]

0:12:38.364,0:12:41.219
we gave her the opportunity[br]to come the class.

0:12:41.219,0:12:44.380
Five months later, there is Angelene.

0:12:44.380,0:12:47.148
A transformation had begun in her life

0:12:47.148,0:12:52.550
Angelene wants to be a pilot so she can fly [br]around the world and do a difference.

0:12:52.550,0:12:54.694
She was not the top student [br]when we took her,

0:12:54.694,0:12:57.279
now she's the best student[br]not just in our school, [br]

0:12:57.279,0:13:00.145
but in the entire division that we are in.

0:13:00.145,0:13:04.225
She's showing different, that's Sharon, [br]that's five years later,

0:13:04.225,0:13:09.871
that's Avaleen, five months later, [br]that's the difference that we are making

0:13:09.871,0:13:12.984
As a new dawn is happening in my school

0:13:12.984,0:13:15.460
A new beginning is happening,

0:13:15.460,0:13:21.466
as we speak right now [br]125 girls will never be mutilated.

0:13:21.466,0:13:26.691
125 girls will not be married[br]when they are 12 years old.

0:13:26.691,0:13:32.526
125 girls are creating [br]and achieving their dreams.

0:13:32.526,0:13:38.233
This is the thing that we are doing - [br]giving them opportunities so they can rise.

0:13:38.233,0:13:42.141
As we speak right now, [br]women are not being beaten[br]

0:13:42.141,0:13:45.183
because of the revolutions [br]we've started in our community.

0:13:45.183,0:13:53.754
(Applause)

0:13:53.754,0:13:56.250
I want to challenge you today

0:13:56.250,0:14:01.452
you're listening to me because [br]you are here very optimistic.

0:14:01.452,0:14:04.990
You are somebody who is so passionate

0:14:04.990,0:14:08.730
You are somebody who wants[br]to see a better world.

0:14:08.730,0:14:11.933
You are somebody who wants to[br]see the war end.

0:14:11.933,0:14:13.201
No poverty.

0:14:13.201,0:14:15.837
You are somebody who wants to [br]make a difference.

0:14:15.837,0:14:19.441
You are somebody who wants to [br]make our tomorrow better.

0:14:19.441,0:14:23.426
I want to challenge today to be there first --

0:14:23.426,0:14:25.729
because people will follow you.

0:14:25.729,0:14:27.964
Be the first - people will follow you

0:14:27.964,0:14:30.696
Be bold - standup.

0:14:30.696,0:14:32.003
Be fearless.

0:14:32.003,0:14:33.561
Be confident.

0:14:33.561,0:14:38.802
Move out because as you change your world, [br]as you change your community,

0:14:38.802,0:14:43.611
as we believe we are impacting [br]one girl, one family, [br]

0:14:43.611,0:14:46.950
one village, one country at a time.

0:14:46.950,0:14:48.219
We are making a difference.

0:14:48.219,0:14:52.114
So if you change your world, you're going to [br]change your community,

0:14:52.114,0:14:53.976
you're going to change your country.

0:14:53.976,0:14:57.321
And think about that, [br]if you do that and I do that,

0:14:57.321,0:14:59.200
ain't we going to create a better future,[br]

0:14:59.200,0:15:02.520
for our children, for your children,[br]for our grandchildren,

0:15:02.521,0:15:05.346
and we will live in a very peaceful world.

0:15:05.346,0:15:06.598
Thank you very much.

0:15:06.598,0:15:25.050
(Applause)