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MENTORSHIP: Stellar Girls Kenya & Grace Nanana Rescue Centre, Kajiado.

GRACE Nanana is a rescue center where Maasai girls escape the illegal but still practiced customs of early marriage and female genital mutilation in order to pursue education. Full-time housing and care for the girls is provided on-site at Nanana Winbridge Education School, located in Kajiado town, Kenya. GRACE Nanana works to educate and empower girls to choose the life they want to live.

On Saturday, 19th March 2022, the Centre's management extended an invitation to Stellar Girls Kenya to facilitate a whole day's mentoring session for their girls on pressing and reoccurring matters which include but are not limited to:
  1. Academics/Education (Importance and benefits to the gir
    l child, tips for balancing with talents, career options, etc)
  2. Early Child Marriages (Its illegality and setbacks)
  3. Female Genital Mutilation (its horrors and demystifying its myths and misconceptions)
  4. Childhood & General Life trauma (Overcoming and growing past them)
  5. Menstrual Health Hygiene Management
Our team of 5 Stellar mentors meticulously handled these topics with grace, grit and ease while at the same time setting a platform for discussions with the 23 girls and 1 boy present. To our amazement, the girls made us aware of some unsettling myths that they, at a tender age (16 years and below), have heard being casually thrown around regarding FGM. Few that raised our eyebrows include:
  • Without FGM, a girl cannot get a husband to marry & value her
  • Without FGM, child birth is expected to be a horrid experience & will involve so much pain
  • Without FGM, no one will want to touch her blood during childbirth, as it would be considered ‘unclean’.
With mentorship sessions and talks like the one we had, their mindset is set to change. They get to be exposed to a different kind of world and environment where girls flourish without having to pass through these outdated ‘rites of passage’. Stellar Girls Kenya is honored to be a part of the people changing the narrative and challenging regressive cultural traditions that hinder a girl’s education, elevation and empowerment.

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