Compassion offers Maasai girls a better future

The Maasai tribe is one of the most recognisable tribes in the world, but many of the cultural practices carried out by the group continue to suppress women and even endanger their lives.

Through a network of local churches in Kenya, child development charity Compassion is challenging many of these damaging traditions and offering young girls from the Maasai tribes an opportunity to fulfil their potential.

One of the practices Compassion Kenya is seeking to change is that of childhood marriage. In Kenya, an estimated 42% of girls are married before their 18th birthday. This has a severely detrimental impact on their education, social and emotional development and their health, with pregnancy being the leading cause of death for girls aged 15 to 18 in the developing world.

Another dangerous custom perpetuated in many tribes is that of female genital mutilation. In Kenya alone, 49% of women are victims of this form of mutilation and the practice is highly prevalent in the Maasai tribe.

Pauline Shonk is a 16-year-old sponsored child who will not face early marriage thanks to her participation in a Compassion project. "I want to shape my future so that I can be of help to myself and others. I want to be a doctor," she explains.

Thanks to the support of her Compassion sponsor, Pauline attends the prestigious Ewaso Najile Girls School, a girls' secondary boarding school that is approximately 70km from Nairobi. Of the 267 students, 21 are Compassion-sponsored girls.

"Other girls [who are not in school] look much older than me," continues Pauline. "They are married and have children at a young age and they face many hardships at home.”

"Illiteracy and lack of exposure has dragged us behind. We have many bright girls who can compete with anyone," says Isaac Teeka, a history teacher at the Ewaso Najile Girls School. "This opportunity to be in school offers them that chance."

By working through local churches who understand local traditions, Compassion can reach out to those who are in greatest need effectively and with sensitivity. It often takes many, many years to see change, which is why the local church is the best vehicle for long-term development.

The landscape of rural Kenya is undoubtedly changing and with a generation of educated and confident young women, it will be better prepared for the future.

Find out how you can support these and other women across the globe by visiting Compassion. And don't forget to mark the United Nation's International Day of the Girl Child on October 11!

Read more about female liberation and empowerment in the upcoming issue of Liberti magazine. 

A bit inappropriate?

Liberti editor Rebekah Legg is travelling to Haiti on behalf of Spring Harvest this Sunday to visit various church projects sponsored by Compassion. Bekah be keeping us up to date with her trip here:

I got my travel pack in the post today; all the instructions I need for my trip to Haiti. I was so excited I could have squealed.

But then I wasn't sure if I should be excited. After all I’m travelling to a disaster zone, a place that had been decimated by dictators and weather systems, poverty and sickness long before the biggest earthquake in two centuries hit. Is it right to be excited, or does that make me wrong? A bit inappropriate? How are you meant to feel about flying into poverty, meeting people who are struggling to get through each day, kids whose major achievement to date is survival?

But I am excited: excited that I have the privilege of visiting projects that are changing lives; saving lives. Excited about seeing the church in motion, the church living up to its name, being light in the darkness and a force for good in a land that is broken.

I sat down with a mug of tea to read my pack; learned a few little bits of Creole; it’s a bit like French, I think I can pull it off. I learned how to make sure I don’t commit any social faux pas and I checked out what to wear. My excitement left me in a rush: I have nothing to wear. It feels ridiculous that I should say such a thing, but it’s actually true.

I had anticipated a bit of decency being necessary and was, I thought, ahead of the game. It’s going to be hot, but I know my little summer dresses would probably be considered scandalous so I’d borrowed some cropped trousers from my mum as my two pairs are either white (asking for trouble) or falling apart (you can see my underwear- definitely scandalous).  So I thought, Mum to the rescue, a few borrowed pairs of decent trousers would do trick.

But now, the travel guide says trousers are a no-no for women as are shorts, I have to wear long skirts and hide my cleavage. I may have to cut holes in my duvet cover and wear that as a shroud as a close inspection of my wardrobe reveals a large lack of long skirts and an abundance of now embarrassingly low cut tops. My entire wardrobe is inappropriate. I am have a clothing crisis the like of which I have not experienced since a last minute invitation to a posh function caught me a stone heavier than my one smart frock allowed. All in all I went into a spin and headed for the internet to see if I could find something decent to wear – in every sense of that word.

And then I stopped; because if anything seems inappropriate in this situation it’s spending money on clothes. I’m flying to a country where 54% of people live on less than a dollar a day. Having lived in Kenya I can picture the markets where they find their clothes. We used to call them bend over boutiques – huge piles of clothes discarded by the West but treasured in the developing world – a business for some and a provision for those who otherwise really would have nothing to wear.

It’s made me think about how I use the money God has granted me. It’s made me think about the call God has on my life and I’ve remembered that for me that’s not to be a fashion emissary to the developing world (or anywhere for that matter as my daughters would tell you).

I’ve decided this isn’t an excuse to expand my wardrobe with inappropriately expensive and unnecessary items; I’ve rung around my mates and borrowed some bits and dug out some old things I’d forgotten I had. I’ve some odd combinations, but I don’t think my hosts will care and the important thing is that they know how honoured and delighted I am to meet them. That's appropriate, that's exciting; I can’t wait.