 For Elsie, sharing a story with the public wasn't an easy task, but it created room for other women to speak out. So I think for me how I thought about reaching out to other endometriosis patients or potential patients who did not know what they were going through was I began sharing my story through my social media platforms and media houses reached out and they wanted to interview me and I just wanted to hear about what I was going through and so that was the first step, so sharing my pain and just making sure that another woman who was out there was not feeling alone but she understood that one, her condition has a name, she's not alone as she's suffering and there's probably a solution. It's not a permanent solution but there is a solution. So then I was able to create a community online, a page online that women could just join and come and just really just share their struggles but drawing out women who suffer with endometriosis to make them talk about it is very difficult because it's a taboo conversation. So I remember my mum used to panic sometimes when she would hear that, you know, I'm going on air to talk about this. Do you have to, and I'm like, you know what, think about the big picture, think about the young girl who doesn't even understand what she's going through and how many people this will be able to help and indeed I began to see the impact that my sharing, the sharing of my story had on other women even just the members of society, just for other people to be able to understand that, wow, this condition has a name. Like, it was just such an eye-opener for a lot of women, for a lot of people in society. So I thought, let me also go further, register an organization, so started the foundation and now we are working around just being very deliberate and conscious about raising awareness about this condition making sure that the public understands what endometriosis is, we better their understanding and we also want to now go into doing some research, you know, trying to understand, you know, like, really, really how does, you know, the condition impact the quality of a woman's life one. Secondly, can we also just try and do some research just around us finding out, like, how many people in the country have been impacted by endometriosis and certainly what types of intervention that, you know, have they been resorting to and can we then also improve by making sure that as we raise awareness can we make sure that we influence policy and we influence government to make sure that in each of the centers in the country, in the county hospital, in the county facilities that there is someone who understands the condition. This is says, her previous employer provided opportunities, the bold ideas for the Heroes for Change program that has reached a large number of people. Within the organization that I used to work with previously at Unilever provided us employees to come up with ideas that could help the organization live out its sustainable living plan so Unilever has got the, yeah, the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan, it's called the USOP and that's where I came up with the idea of Heroes for Change. So we came up with it and we crafted it part of, you know, with other team members and, you know, I thought about it like there are young people out there who are looking for employment opportunities but they don't have that now. They want to participate in transforming their communities but they don't have that platform but what do we have? We've got the programs, we've got the resources as an organization called Unilever why don't we just equip them? Why don't we just take some time, train them and then we send them out there to deploy some of the programs that we're working on and I tell you the passion is unreal and what I ended up seeing one is for these young people who were thinking that they need skills and they need resources from here to China and back they just said, if you just train me with one thing, it awakens that passion and purpose that is within them instantly they realize within my community I have, you know, I have clout, they can listen to me so I can talk to them about anything, if I have an idea I can mobilize them I can bring them together and show them for example how to wash their hands with soap and water I can teach them, like I can tell them about this soap, I can tell them that probably there is an opportunity for us to invest together as mothers you know, so I saw that happen and I've seen that happen continually for two years and so for me I keep saying if you share your purpose, you're one step ahead how you open that door for someone else is by handing them an opportunity so you don't necessarily have to give them money, it doesn't have to be money, it doesn't have to be it's just sharing a story, just inspire someone else to know that hey, this opportunity is not too far away from them and they have the opportunity of just transforming the people who are around them Heroes for Change started because we were looking for a way of scaling up our social impact programs as Unilever and we thought it's a perfect opportunity to collaborate with young people who are passionate also about their communities, they have the resource of time and they are trusted within their communities so we thought let's equip them, let's train them about the programs that we're doing and some of the programs I'm talking about is hand washing with soap, brushing teeth like for example for kids there was just other nutrition programs, so all of them just focusing around how can we help change, drive behavior change especially among school children so recruit them of course using social media so we would invite people to just send in their applications and it's just simple like are you passionate about your community, there's no real criteria we're looking for the only one that was mandatory was just ensuring that they were university students from particular regions around the country The far I have reached, I am proud of the purpose my initiative is serving to the society I feel like I unlocked my purpose, that I am sure, so people ask me so after I left Unilever now I am my own employer, am I living out my purpose? I am like absolutely, I am leading these three organizations, all of them touching the same kind of target audience that each one of them is talking to and I am doing the thing that I am passionate about even without being paid if you don't pay me I am fine, I can do it that's the difference between your purpose and another thing your purpose is the thing that will wake you up in the morning, that will keep you up all night and you will do it without thinking about it, like it's not anything that you will be constrained doing you will always find a solution to do it, like you'll never be stuck, there will always be a solution and it doesn't matter how big the challenge is or how small, somehow you'll be able to accomplish it Success entails overcoming every challenge that comes along your way and some of the challenges I think is just for example scaling up some of the interventions like some of the programs that we are seeking to do trying to make sure that we can be able to recruit more young people just getting the resources to be able to even just build our tech platform, it's very very expensive those are some of the challenges but it's not like we are not thinking about how to overcome them but the other challenge is also just in terms of just making sure that you get into the right partnerships because you always want to make sure that you get the right partner to deliver the proper interventions and the proper programs because I think without that when we've gotten into wrong partnerships and it's just eaten into our time eaten into our resources and which I feel is just a waste of time it's never the best thing and the other challenge is because we are inviting young people to volunteer their time sometimes there's that expectation that we will be a solution to all their problems and sometimes balancing that is never easy There is a large support system that has played a role in making ELSI's initiatives a success and for that she is very thankful I would love to just thank the big people that I'd love to thank is of course Justin Apsey who is the MD for Unilever East Africa without whom just because of how passionate he is about purpose just made sure that Heroes for Changers was able to spin off and was able to stand on its own two feet and then of course I thank my boss my boss and my friend she's called Professor Miriam Sidibe she's one of few Africans, few people around the world who have a PhD in hand washing so she has been very instrumental in just teaching me about why it's important to have a mission driven organization and that's what I believe Heroes for Change and the other organizations I lead are about and of course I would not be where I am without my fathers and mother's support and my siblings I love you guys and yeah strive to live a legacy that ought to be remembered if you stop focusing on yourself and make it about other people I promise you it'll become easier to implement because I think you'll never get enough for yourself you'll always want the next new phone you'll always want the next new laptop you always want the next big thing but if you are the only person who is comfortable and you look around your community and there is nothing that reflects like how you've participated in changing that I'd ask you to take a step back what legacy do you want to live here on this earth? that you drove the fanciest cars? people forget that people forget the richest people but they never forget the people who make an impact in their lives who change their lives and so that for me I think is the biggest ask for young people what legacy do you want to live in the people who are around you what will you be remembered for?