Sharing a speech that my friend recently gave in our toastmaster's meet. We won the best speaker for the day together. This is her speech excerpts. I share this as I got to know of another personality, who has contributed something to this world :)
Let me start with a
question: do you think Malala Yousafazi deserved Nobel Prize?
Mixed opinions ha?
I’m not going to comment over that question today. But I’m here to introduce
you to another woman who has set her entire life as an example for the cause
Malala represents – education of girls in developing countries.
Fellow toast masters,
esteemed guests,
Kakaenya Ntaiya – she is the protagonist
of my story. She is a woman who has defied local tradition, got an education, and now crusades
to bring the same opportunities to the girls of her homeland.
Kakaneya was born
into Massai Tribe in Western Kenya. At the age
of just five, Kakenya's life was mapped out for her by her Maasai community. A
marriage had been arranged and when she becomes a teenager, she would be
circumcised and then married. From then on she was supposed to learn all things
that could make her a perfect wife – raise cattle and corn, collect fire wood,
cook food for her siblings and fetch water from rivers. An experience common
for all girls in rural Kenya. Meanwhile she focused on her education.
Kakenya dreamed of becoming a teacher but
as she reached age 13, she came to a crossroads. If she followed the
traditional Maasai path and went through with the circumcision – which by the
way is performed by a rusty knife and no anesthetic or antibiotic - then she
would have to forget all about continuing her education. That’s the tradition.
She
did something which most girls would not have done- she tried to negotiate with
her father – she would undergo the ceremony only if he agrees to send her back
to school. A girl not undergoing circumcision brings shame to her family.
Finally he agreed.
Life went on. At high school, she got the chance to take her education even further, with a scholarship to
study in the US at the Randolph-Macon Women's College in Virginia. But to get
there, she needed the permission of the men in the village.
"They said: 'What a lost
opportunity. This should have been given to a boy. We can't do this,'" she
recalls.
Kakenya refused to give up and took
her case to the village elders. She went to each of their homes every day
morning and pleaded. She triumphed and left to study in the US. Being in
America was an incredible experience and opened her eyes to some elements of
her upbringing in Enoosaen.
She learned that the ceremony she went through when she was 13
years old was called female genital mutilation and that it was against the law
in Kenya. She learned that she did not have to trade part of her body to get an
education and that there are three million girls in Africa at risk of undergoing
this mutilation. Those things made her angry. She decided to do something.
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