SI President’s Appeal Coordinator, Ayushi Kundu, speaks to Dr. Josephine Kulea, HSC, Founder and Executive Director of Samburu Girls Foundation (SGF), a courageous youth activist whose work addresses Harmful Cultural Practices in Kenya.

Ayushi: Hello Dr. Kulea, It’s my pleasure to conduct this interview with you. The work you do is admirable, and you are a true champion of women’s rights, and have made it your life’s motto to end abhorrent forms of violence faced by girls and women in your community and country. We hope that the following questions, will allow Soroptimists and a wider audience to learn of your exemplary work, and of the increased risks that women and girls have and continue to face during the current pandemic lockdowns.

Ayushi: Please tell us a little more about yourself, and your experiences with Child Marriage and Female Genital Multilation (FGM). How did these impact you?

Dr. Kulea: I grew up in my community of the Samburu of Northern Kenya, who believe that girls are only important if they get married and it does not matter at what age. All girls got married while I was growing up and I knew it was the norm until I left my village in the 4th grade at 9 years, accompanying a classmate who was 10 years old and was getting rescued by a priest who sponsored our education. The girl was being rescued from child marriage and of course FGM, and I had to accompany her to boarding school almost 500 kms away from home to keep her safe. It is while in this boarding school that I realised girls in that community were not being married off young, were also not subjected to FGM and they also did not practice beading, and it is then I started questioning why our community was doing it.

My mom fought for me to be in school after my dad passed on a year later and my uncles were hungry for bride price, so as I came home every school break I would find a new husband ready to marry me, and my mom would refuse. While in grade 6 I had a cousin who was my age and who was beaded and not sent to school. So, I would be her teacher every school break, and when I found out she loved knowing how to read and write, I told my mother she must go to school. When the schools were opened for the next year, they got rid of her beads and my mom bought her uniform and enrolled her to school, and since then she became the best student in her class until high school, where she scored a straight A and she joined university to study medicine. She is now a medical doctor in one of the Kenya referral hospitals. After I completed my high school my mom did not have money to pay for my university so when my uncles forced me to marry she did not have a choice. I remember I delayed my FGM by one day because I was looking for a way to escape but I could not find any.

Ayushi: When was the first time you decided to stand up against these practices in your community and at what point did you start the ‘Samburu Girls Foundation’?

Dr. Kulea: I started rescuing girls way before I registered the organisation. I started in 2008 when I rescued the first girl who was my cousin, 10 years old, and when I rescued her from both FGM and  child marriage and was taking her to be enrolled to school the next day, I got a call that there was a wedding at my uncles’ and they had replaced the bride with the younger sister who was barely 7 years old. I went back with police to rescue her too and made sure my uncle was arrested for it. Three years down the line I had rescued 46 girls and all depended on me for schooling, shelter and upkeep, and it became very expensive since I could barely afford to take care of them, so I decided to register the Samburu Girls Foundation in October 2011. We rescue girls from FGM, child marriage and beading and have a rescue centre in Samburu, but the girls are drawn from the 4 counties neighbouring Samburu who are also pastoralist and practice the above harmful practices on girls. To date we have rescued 1,243 girls and all of them are in schools at different levels, from pre-school to university, and there are a few who have graduated and are now working.

Ayushi: Please tell us a little more about ‘beading’. How does it affect women and girls?

Dr. Kulea: Beading is a cultural practice among the Samburu where young unmarried girls who have also not gone through FGM, usually between the ages of 8-12 years, are bought beads in exchange for sex by a man who will not be allowed to marry her because he is considered a clan mate, hence a relative. If the girl conceives in the relationship she either undergoes crude abortion, because they are not allowed to give birth if one has not gone through FGM, or they wait for the baby to be born and then it is killed. Sometimes when girls undergo several of the abortions they become infertile.

Ayushi: Have you faced any backlashes against your movement?

Dr. Kulea: I have faced many challenges since the first case, which was my own family, I was cursed by old men from my village for going against traditions, but years later the same old men blessed me because they realised I just wanted the best for the girls.  I have also been threatened before, so it has been both a challenging journey and a fulfilling one, to see those girls smile for being safe and knowing that although it may be a drop in the ocean, it still counts.

Ayushi: Do you think there is a correlation between climate change and violence against women, more particularly FGM and Child Marriage?

Dr. Kulea: Yes, climate change has affected the lifestyle of nomadic-pastoral communities and their main source of livelihood is livestock keeping, and with the uncertain climate changes their livelihood has been affected, not being reliable, and hence communities have increased child marriages, which go hand-in-hand in Samburu with FGM; actually most girls are cut on the day of the wedding.

Ayushi: What effects have COVID-19, and more specifically, the resulting lockdowns had on FGM and Child Marriage?

Dr. Kulea: During the lockdown and curfews of COVID-19, many girls have been subjected to child marriage and FGM because now the parents can do it in secret and the law enforcers cannot be informed due to fear, and the girls also are afraid to run away.

Ayushi: What is your appeal to your community and country in these times?

Dr. Kulea: My appeal to my community is to protect children by following the laws, and my appeal to my country is that children are being violated and laws should be implemented, because at the household level, the chiefs are aware of what is going on and they can be able to intervene. COVID-19 should not be used as a cover-up to entertain violation against girls and women.

Ayushi: You are very young, but you have already empowered the lives of so many women and girls around you. Your work has been acknowledged by former President of United States, Barrack Obama, and he has supported you in front of thousands of people in a live audience. How does this make you feel? And what is your message to people around the world, especially the youth?

Dr. Kulea: The acknowledgement of our work by President Obama created awareness of the important work that we are doing at the grassroot level. It made me feel proud of the achievements we have made so far but it also made me worried because many people thought the applause came with financial support for the girls, but it did not. My message to the people around the world, if you believe in someone’s work, support them. It is not enough to say ‘good work’ and ‘good-bye’, a lot of resources are needed to invest in girls education, a proven solution to most of the harmful practices; a girl in class, is a girl in a safe space. To the youth, pursue your dreams but most importantly pursue your passion because most of the time it ends up being your purpose in life, and you will enjoy doing what you love, and at the same time bring change to the world. It may not be easy, but nothing important has ever been achieved easily, so go for it!

 

Lead Image: African Women Leaders Network – Launch event at UNHQ
Josephine Kulea, Samburu Girls Foundation, Kenya

Photo: UN Women/Ryan Brown