Introducing myself and my journal: Filling the Emptiness

About Me:
As i grew up, there was always a feeling of some empty space, something sort of helplessness. This persisted into my adult and professional life as a teacher. During my teaching career, i realized that the emptiness just disappeared anytime i sort of enlightened the young girls about the place of the woman in the kenyan, society especially those in the rural areas and how they could get out (all of them came from remote areas where female circumcission was appreciated and women were disregarded). I often would wonder what happened whenever a girl would accept to be mutilated during the course of her studies or even after clearing her o-level studies despite the education against the vice. The helplessness somehow overwhelmed me just thinking of this. Then i developed a great urge to do something, Something that could turn the tables around. It is then that the urge to pursue gender studies begun. The future of the women depended on getting all the stakeholders involved, especially the men, for i came to realize that if women's situation was to change, men had to change too.

Later i came to understand why the young girls would undergo the 'female cut', inspite of the education and efforts by some organizatons to sensitize them. When girls went back to the society, they felt alienated since they lacked that which made them women (in the eyes of the community) and since many do not access further education, their next option was to get married, The preliquisite for this was to undergo 'the cut'. This is where the men's role in encourageing the practice came in, no man would marry a woman who had not been circumcised.

currently, i am going through the phaces of career change and hope to turn my dream into a reality.

My Passions:
Getting men and women work and interact as partners and not competitors

My Challenges:
The fact that gender as a field of work has not gained rooting in kenya

My Vision for the Future:
A world where all women are appreciated

My Areas of Expertise:
Education, gender and development