April 7, 2013

Theo Dobie & Rachael Tengbom

The idea started with a few scribbled lines on a scrap of paper: “Use this to give the girls their voices back”. Attached to the note was a thirty-five dollar check.

The Maasai of Kenya

Rachael Tengbom, the Executive Director for Voices of Hope-Africa, is a Maasai woman from the Central Division of the Kajiado District in Kenya. She currently lives in the United States with her family, but a portion of her heart remains in Kenya. Her tribe, the Maasai, is known for their strong cultural traditions, brave warriors, and love of their cattle.

The Maasai are also known for other traditions: Female Genital Mutilation (the torturous cutting off of a girl’s genitalia) and Child Marriage. FGM is viewed as a “rite of passage” marking the girl’s transition to womanhood- and it is the male’s way of ensuring that they do not stray from marriage. The Maasai believe that an uncut woman has sexual feelings for every man, while circumcision shields her from these desires.

Executive Director and Maasai Advocate- Rachael Tengbom

Voices of Hope Finds its Inspiration

As a teacher, Rachael saw the hopelessness of the situation all too often. Girls, full of life and curiosity, would be learning mathematical fractions on Friday, and by Monday, their educational opportunities would be concluded.

“I felt helpless as a teacher. Girls as young as ten would go missing in my class because they had gone through female circumcision and were married off to a man, likely 50 years her senior.”

Rachael, who would marry an American missionary and spend the next decade of her life in the United States, made frequent trips back to Kenya. Each time she vacillated over the inequity of her fellow woman’s social standing.  She would be asked by young high school graduates, who had previously been kept safe from FGM by attending boarding school/rescue centers, to save them from female genital mutilation.  Upon graduation these young women had nowhere to turn and would be forced into returning to their communities to face FGM and forced marriage or escape to the big city where they would potentially be sexually exploited and forced into prostitution as a means to support themselves.

It was a difficult proposition.

“I wondered how I could do this- the Maasai girls are in such need of help, but there are so many complex problems. I didn’t know where to start.”

It was while attending leadership training in the United States that Rachael made a commitment to reach out to Maasai post high school girls who were facing FGM.  She wanted to give them the opportunity to obtain higher education as she did.  Rachel noted: “It would be my life’s calling”.

The note and check arrived several weeks later from a stranger who had heard about Rachael’s commitment to help young Maasai women: “Use this to give the girls their voices back”.

“When I saw that note, with those words written on it: to give them their voices back, it was really powerful for me. I had never thought of it that way before. The Maasai culture naturally suppresses the woman’s voice.  A woman is always under a man’s control in my culture.  Their voices are never heard. And, they live a life without hope. It’s time to change this. The women I support will be given a voice and they will be the main force behind changing other Maasai girls and women’s lives… ‘Voices of Hope’ was born.”

To date, the non-profit has fully funded 41 young women’s college and educational opportunities, with the majority of the graduates currently employed. The next step is to build a safe home and training center that girls and young women can go to when they are in danger of being involuntary coerced into going through female genital mutilation and forced married. At the center, short term training will be offered and the ability to become financially independent will be a focus.

The Graduates Are Being Heard

“The beauty of Maasai women gaining higher education and obtaining a voice is that it doesn’t just impact the individual. They are empowering others to follow,” Rachael said.

“Outside forces are normally viewed with distrust by the Maasai people, because they are fearful that the strangers are coming to change their culture.  In Voices of Hope Leadership training our students learn how to advocate for girls and women while still respecting the Maasai culture, yet discouraging cultural practices like FGM and girl child marriage. Because they’re Maasai, they know and understand the tribal customs.”

Rachael concluded: “Fathers have looked upon their daughters and deemed their only value derived from a marriage dowry – more education for their daughters is viewed as a waste of money. Husbands believed that for a woman to be trust-worthy must be circumcised”.

“The fact is, you can have both: A woman can have an education and be uncircumcised, and still be a Maasai woman – love her people, live in her village, and retain a strong value system. Many of our graduates have gone back to their villages and have shown that being educated and uncircumcised doesn’t fundamentally change the culture. In truth, they have shown they are more “valuable”.  Their income has bought cows and land that can now benefit them as well as their fathers and husbands.   And, in the process, they now have a voice.”

In the coming months, Voices of Hope will be posting blog entries written by our graduates as they detail their experiences. Please check back to read about their triumphs and struggles through their own eyes.

Voices of Hope Africa Recognizes the Power of  International Women’s Day

 And concedes that we have a long way to go…

Voices of Hope Africa Team

International Women’s Day has a remarkable history.

Used as rallying point for the women’s labor and suffrage movement in North America and Europe, its beginnings can be traced back to a March 8^th, 1857 event in one of the industrial capitals of the world, New York. Female garment workers took to the streets to protest against inhumane working conditions and low wages that made for a dismal working experience. Of course, in a wholly unoriginal manner, the Police quickly dispersed this first protest with, what can be surely described as, unduly harsh measures for the occasion – “measures” that an active citizenry was supposedly protected against in the American constitution.

However, the movement was not snuffed out after a violent beginning –females have continually showed an inner fortitude that even the most aggressively patriarchal forces have had to grudgingly recognize- and the first women’s labor union was the result. Several decades later, in 1908, 15,000 women in New York again marched for better labor and pay practices, but also added on to their list the ending of child labor, and their right to vote, a practice that still seemed too trivial to be brought up in a serious manner by the current legislators of the day.

The doctrine of the time was still that it was rather self-evident that male property owners were the only ones who had the true intellectual capacity to cast an educated vote, “It is how it’s always been, thus it’s how it should continue to be.”

We now know how ludicrous this type of thinking is and what can be done to overcome it, but it can still be found, nevertheless.

In an international move, the concept of the day was first brought up during the 1910 International Conference of Working Women held in Copenhagen and the delegates in attendance unanimously voted for an International Women’s Day to be held yearly.

From the fervent but humble beginnings of the early 1900s to now, International Women’s Day, and the recognition of women’s talents in science, government, policy, economics, business and many other industries, has experienced incredible growth. The day itself is now a nationally recognized holiday in 27 countries and the United Nations established its acceptance of the day in 1975.  Each year, the UN promotes a different theme. They have ranged from Empowering Women-End Hunger and Poverty to Equal Right, Equal Opportunities: Progress for all.

The 2013 theme is:  “A promise is a promise: Time for action to end violence against women”

Sinore’s Story

In 2013, there are still pressing issues in regards to women’s equality and empowerment, and in violence against women. Voices of Hope Africa understands this issue all too well, and it’s why we are not only recognizing this day but urging our fellow global citizens to take an active role in the push back against issues that hinder females, and indeed, societal development.

Central to the needed advocacy effort is the denouncement of the practice of violence against women.

Female Genital Mutilation is such a practice. Furthermore, rather than a strict cultural act, it has a rather ambiguous history in most cultures where it is performed, and in most cases, done against the will of the woman. Again to bring up the incredibly ill-thought, but dangerous phrase, “It is how it’s always been, thus it’s how it should continue to be.”

In regards to a child, there are no cases of FGM where it can be considered “voluntary”.

Touching upon our own project platform, we have been asked why we focus on educating post high school young Maasai women and not the little ones who pull at our heart strings. The reason we focus on young women is because it is our belief that women’s lack of education, empowerment, and economic independence are the most significant factors in perpetuating oppression, poverty, female genital mutilation, and child marriage in the Maasai Tribe of Kenya. Change happens on the local level, within the tribe, and an educated and empowered woman can make that change in a way no international legal legislation could ever hope to.

Last summer 17 young Maasai women completed our Voices of Hope Leadership Training. These young women were selected out of 400+ candidates. All of them had no hope of furthering their education, and were in imminent danger of female genital mutilation (FGM) and forced marriage.  They also firmly stated that it was against their will to go through FGM and they came to that conclusion as an individual, rather than by some nebulous outside force. They had all completed high school and had been kept safe as a result of attending boarding schools/rescue centers. Seven of the young women were able to begin college.  The remaining 10 were awaiting Sponsorship.

Unfortunately, one of our girls on the waiting list, Sinore, who is pictured above, did not have enough time. Sinore is no longer waiting. She was forced to go through female genital mutilation and married off shortly after this photo was taken.  We had no means to protect her.

As an orphan, Sinore was viewed as a burden to her extended family, and the dowry/bride price of a few cattle was deemed as a profitable exchange for the life and future of this young Maasai woman. Our hearts ache for Sinore and we are in fear for the other young women who are also waiting for sponsors.   Sponsorship is vital right now.  The lives and future of these young women depend on it.

We ask that you contemplate what today means to you and to become active in changing practices that are harmful to the world.  Start small, make one goal to help, and you will be surprised in what the outcome may be.

The young women participating in the VOH Program undergo training in personal and leadership development.  The expectation and goal of “Voices of Hope” is…that all of our students become positive role models and change agents within their community. Once they have obtained their education and are professionally employed, they will also be included as mentors and facilitators in future training, creating a cycle of giving back to their communities.  as a gesture of kindness and appreciation of what others have done for them.

The Voices of Hope sponsored students met yesterday in Kajiado and reached out to the community to distribute sanitary napkins to the very needy young girls in the Maasai community.

One in ten schoolgirls in Africa miss classes or drop out completely due to their menstrual cycle. In countries where menstrual hygiene is taboo, girls in puberty are typically absent for 20% of the school year. Most girls drop out at around 11 to 12-years-old, and miss school not simply because they fear being teased by their classmates if they show stains from their period, but also because they are not educated about their periods, and their need for safe and clean facilities is not prioritised. The idea that monthly bleeding is something shameful, polluting, or taboo may also encourage girls to avoid social contact during their period. Additionally, the cultural implications of menstruation as a stage in a woman’s development may be used to take girls out of school – the idea being that if a girl is ready for motherhood, then she is ready for marriage. This is why our students and Kenyan Board Members are providing sanitary napkins to young adolescent and teenage girls.