Breaking barriers: Lesuuda's bold stand for girls and women rights

Silvana Lesuuda engages community members in Sambuu County. [Courtesy]

What started as a contractual job as a data collector, turned out to be the drive that would push Silvana Lesuuda to pursue her passion for helping her indigenous Samburu community.

Working for organizations doing research in her community, the 31-year-old nurtured her aspiration of advocating for the rights of women and girls in Samburu.

At the core of the Samburu's societal structure are age-old cultural traditions that shape every aspect of life. The traditions define and confine the roles of its people.

Samburu is a patriarchal system that places men at the helm of decision-making and the roles of women are defined within the confines of home life. But the women and girls in the community suffer even more from the burden of teenage pregnancies, child marriages, and Female Genital Mutilation.

Lesuuda is determined to break the barriers and rewrite the oppression narratives of women and girls in her community.

Hers is a focus on young girls, who were married off at a tender age and are often left out in group engagements in the community.

"Whenever organisations wanted to address issues concerning women, it was the elderly ones who were being invited, and for the youth empowerment programs the young mothers were kept off the youth bracket because they are married," says the mother of one.

In the Samburu community's traditional framework, men wield authority over community matters, while women's voices are often relegated to the periphery and their participation in broader societal decisions is minimal.

This patriarchal setup extends to critical areas like health and personal independence, where women have minimal control over their well-being.

Lesuuda believes that teenage mothers experience acute gender inequality.

"These girls suffer not only from the pain of being 'cut' and navigating early motherhood but also from being marginalized within their own community," she says.

Lesuuda stands at the forefront of a quiet but powerful movement advocating for the rights of these young girls in a community where even decisions about their health and life are often made without their input.

Through her community-based organization dubbed Network Empowering Samburu Transformation (NEST), Lesuuda is breaking the unbreakable myths through community engagements and social-economic empowerment.

As she navigates the complex interplay between tradition and progress, Lesuuda's work offers a glimpse of hope and transformation in a community poised at the crossroads of change.

Initially, Lesuuda introduced the Shanga Girl Project where the girls are given a platform to interact, share their experiences, participate in decision-making, and enable them to be self-reliant through enterprises.

Her initial meetings with the girls revealed a lack of knowledge about menstrual health, maternal and child care, nutrition, and family planning. "Some didn't even understand how their reproductive systems work, and discussing menstruation with men is a taboo," she notes.

Samburu County is among the leading regions with high numbers of teenage pregnancies according to the Kenya Demographic Health Survey 2022.

Sensitization programs on sexual health reproduction and sexual reproductive health rights and sex offences for in-school and out-of-school girls have also led to significant milestones in enlightening the community.

Lesuuda was nominated as the upcoming human rights defender by Defenders Coalition in 2023, a recognition she said earned her partnerships and support for the cause.

Her tireless efforts are not just challenging entrenched norms but are also providing hope for a future where every woman and girl can envision a life free from the shadows of oppression.