A village girl from the Maasai community in Kajiado, Nice Leng’ete, has been appointed Postcode Lottery Group International ambassador for change.
The Postcode Lottery Group International on October 7, 2023, announced the appointment of Lengete’s ambassadorial position for changing the lives of many girls in Africa, and Kenya in Particular.
Leng’ete now joins the likes of former South African President Nelson Mandela, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Bill Clinton, George Clooney, and Sir David Attenborough, who were earlier named ambassadors by the organisation.
As part of the appointment, Leng’ete’s leadership movement at a Nice Place Foundation in Loitokitok was awarded a grant of €250,000 (Sh38 million) by the generous hearts at the Postcode Lottery Group to scale their impact through community engagement, education and leadership of girls for change.
“I am filled with immense joy and gratitude. It is a powerful affirmation of our mission to empower girls and transform communities making their dreams come true,” Leng’ete said on Wednesday.
Nice Nailantei Leng'ete, 32, is a human rights activist, advocating for alternative rite of passage for girls in Africa and campaigning to stop female genital mutilation.
In her work with Amref Health Africa, Leng'ete has saved an estimated 15,000 girls from undergoing genital mutilation and for many, childhood marriages.
She was named by Time magazine in 2018 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Leng'ete was born in the village of Kimana in Loitokitok, Kajiado South subcounty.
She was orphaned when both her parents died in 1997 and 1998. She spent her early years moving among many different homes in her village.
When she was eight years old, she was sent away to a boarding school. It was there that she discovered that "the cut", a rite of passage for girls transitioning to womanhood in her Maasai culture, was not required.
“While growing up, I used to attend these circumcision ceremonies and I could see a lot of pain. All the girls from my village, after they were circumcised, had to drop out of school, and be married to old men, who were not even of their choice,” Leng’ete said.
She told the Star on Wednesday that the girls who went through FGM were 10 years old or 12.
“They were still children but in the eyes of the Maasai community, they were considered women because they had undergone circumcision,” she said.
After seeing the young girls undergoing such enormous pain, a realisation crossed her mind that she would also be made to go through the same and later be married off.
At the age of eight, when her time came to undergo "the cut", Leng'ete decided to run away, encouraging her sister to go with her.
They ran through the bushes of Kimana, which were infested by hyenas and other wild animals, to their aunt's house, some 70 kilometres away, to avoid the road.
Leng'ete's uncle and men from the village soon discovered where she and her sister were hiding. When they went for the girls, they beat them and threatened them.
“The next year, when village girls were being prepared for the rite of passage, I ran away again but was unable to persuade my sister to join me,” she said.
When she was brought back to the village, Leng'ete appealed to her grandfather. She told him that she would run away forever and live on the streets rather than endure being cut.
Her grandfather relented, and agreed to let her forego the traditional ritual, and also allowed her to return to school. Leng'ete was ostracised by the village as being a bad example and someone who put her family and community to shame.
Leng’ete was the first girl in her village to go to high school, she began to be seen in her village as an inspiration to young girls and women.
Later, she would hide young girls who asked for her help to avoid "being cut", an action that made her an outcast in her community.
She continued to advocate for the girls and encouraged the villagers to discuss the sensitivity and importance of punitive traditions.
In the Maasai culture, she told the Star, the women are not allowed to address village elders, but when she attended a sexual health class sponsored by Amref Health Africa, she asked the village leaders to let her share with the community what she had learned.
The village elders allowed her to speak only to the younger men of the village, but none of the men were interested in listening to her.
"No girl had been courageous enough before to challenge the status quo, to challenge men,” Douglas Meritei, one of those men she interacted with said.
Meritei said Leng'ete would not give up and kept trying to speak to the younger men for the next two years.
Eventually, the elders of the village told the young men to sit with her, but only three of those men would speak to her.
"Gradually, more of the younger men came to talk with me, and gradually the topics expanded — from HIV prevention to teenage pregnancy and its health complications, to early marriage, to school attrition and, finally, to the cut,” Leng’ete said.
After nearly four years of conversations, the village elders decided to abandon the 'cut'.
She had persuaded the men, and with them, the village, that everyone would be healthier and wealthier if girls stayed in school, married later and gave birth without the complications cutting can create.
Because of her advocacy, Leng'ete was the first woman in her village to be given the Black Walking Stick, which signifies leadership, respect and power within her community.
She has also received several local and global awards and recognition for her advocacy against FGM and girl child empowerment they include the Inspirational Woman of the Year Award from the Kenyan Ministry of Devolution(2015), the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders(2016), Annemarie Madison Prize for her commitment to stop FGM(2018), Laureate Freedom from Want Award(2022).
In 2018 she was recognised as one of 300 global youth leaders by Women Deliver. In the same year, Leng'ete was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World and Most Influential Young Kenyans - Avance Media(2018).