When Nice Nailantei Leng’ete was eight years old, she and her sister ran away from home at 4 AM and hid in a tree to escape ritualised female genital mutilation. She and her sister received lots of punishment and beatings for trying to avoid the ritual. Eventually, her sister gave up and got the cut – for Nice to escape it. The next day she went to her grandfather, a Maasai elder, and convinced him that the cut was not a necessity. He listened, and allowed Nice to continue going to school.
(Photo: TedxAmsterdamWomen/YouTube)
Nice Nailantei Leng’ete then decided that it was not enough to just save herself, she had to fight for others too. She fought to get an education so that she could help change the socio-cultural structures that continue to effectively oppress women and female well-being.
At 27, she started working to negotiate with elders in villages and rural communities across Kenya to convince them that alternative coming-of-age ceremonies will be healthier for girls and better for communities, and her work as a project officer with Amref Health Africa has saved an estimated 15,000 girls in Kenya and Tanzania from the cut, as well as from child marriage.
She is on 2018 TIME 100 list of the World’s Most Influential People
Nice is the only Kenyan to be named in the list.
Culled from konbini.com
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