 Just welcome back to Queens Wednesday online in the morning special. Thanks to Alex and Val for always starting our Wednesday On a laughing note as I always say if you have a video that you think might break the views on breaking views something hilarious Something surprising something wonderful that can start our Wednesday on a on a high note Send it to our social media handles at white 54 channel on Twitter white 5 4 underscore channel on Instagram and white 5 4 on Facebook or you can hit me up directly at it's by more It's time for strength of a woman and the woman in studio the Queen Institute is doing amazing stuff for survivors of FGM Gender-based violence and what nots that ladies go through in me go recounting Carrie Boussana Santisana right your camera is number four right there Gladwell amazing stuff. You're doing first. See what we want to do is if it was an end earlier But before we talk about it introduce yourself Okay, my name is gladwell. Washera one zero. I am from Nanyuki Though I live in migore and the program is in migore the program is in migore. Yeah, I can fly Program. Yeah, I can fly girls program in migore. All right. How did you find yourself in migore first? I was I went there to work. I was working in a hospital So that is when I came to realize that there is a lot of challenges that are being faced by girls Yeah in the gory county in the gory county. All right So you went there for work and then you experienced this and then you decided to do something for the girls that you were seeing in Yeah, at first I thought Working on in my county But as a lip survivor, I thought I should go far away whereby nobody knows me Because this is always a challenge living around someone who did that to you. All right Yeah, so this is something that is so personal to you. Yeah, you're a survivor yourself and This happened where you're from. Yeah, so you understand their plight and you understand their story Yeah, so much. All right. So what when you got to migore? I know you you had You have a bad story It's something traumatic. It's something you're working towards But when you got to migore, did you feel like some people are having it worse? Yeah As I was working I came to meet a lot of girls. Let me say more than 12 girls per day Who are they were pregnant as a tender age of 12 years or 30 years. The average age of All right, yeah, and also the little female gentle motivation is also too much in Korea So the issue of rape was not from the unknown people in migore It is always from the known people something somebody close to the girl the same family Yeah, all right, so it's always a family thing. It is also always a family thing nine times out of ten All right, so When you met these girls What sort of conversations were you having with them? At first they were coming for clinics the antinatal clinics then I was asking Who made you pregnant at this at this age? So they would always say that I was leapt by the unknown person What did you do after you realize you have been leapt? So they always did not do anything because the clan was the one who had to discuss the matter and Always when the guy is from the same family No action was taken no action was taken. Yeah, so as we speak we have so many girls who are pregnant in migore Or in the country. Let me just say in the country because this is a sample of The country at large so there's so many girls who are pregnant and the kids they are carrying As a result of Things they went through with some of their family members. Yeah All right, so in other words incest is alive in this country as we speak it's life Familiar defile it's life Because most of them are leapt from the by the person from the same family. All right. This is what led you to Open up a shelter for these girls who have gone through FGM her gender-based violence and rape Yeah, I never thought I was opening a rescue center at first the first girl I met She was in too much pain. She was 12. So she asked Doctory, can we stay with you or can I stay with you? So I said yes So that is well, I took her in and Later on I came to Getting more girls day by day. How is she doing now the first girl that she rescued? She's already in university point university. Yeah, this is a success story from the rescue center That started by chance. Yeah by chance. All right. Yeah, 60 girls over. Yeah We have 60 girls in the rescue center whereby we provide three meals per day Education and other basic needs So we also have other girls who are outside They were leapt but they've they let peace has already gone to jail. So they normally go to stay with their parents Yeah, all right. So if the perpetrator is in jail, she's safe to live with her parents. Yeah, all right. So Why is it hard to P persecute cases like this one involved in family members Are they protected by the parents of the girl? Are they protected by the community? What is what are the complications that come with it in me gory things are always different? Because they don't want to hurt their own Yeah, and also the police stations that we deal with they are very far So they see it as a process of you know, the cases always take some times So it always take a lot of money the transport Going to court for the hearings. So they normally dealing with the chief Yeah It's a different ball game. It is a different thing because they will have to bug in and negotiate and negotiate All right. What are some of the outcomes that have that have? Made you really mad that that took you by surprise the outcomes of some cases. Yeah, there is a case it was on Last year I was supposed to do an interview whereby every year we do sponsor girls Who have read that in max and above for the KCP? So the girl came to the interview. She told me the whole story. She she is being defiled on a daily basis by the uncle But I took a lot of time three days to release the names of the girls who have passed the interview She had 371 but she committed suicide on the second day because I took long To answer the calls How does this Impact on you when something like this happens it always blame yourself when things like this happen Cases like that. In fact for that case I went all the way to the mochali. I have never seen a dead person Earlier, so that was the my first So I had my sponsor Explain because we took long a certain girl kid herself So we it's like it hurts you you continue blaming yourself for that for that one. Yeah All right, but it's never your fault at the end of the day It's never your fault It's because they don't understand I have to talk to other people so that we can organize on the way they will be helped All right, so some cases result to suicide some cases result to infection some cases result of pregnancies unwanted pregnancies and some cases Some cases end up being unsolved For sure. Wow. Yeah, this is a sad thing. We are live on white to 5 4 This is Quinn's Wednesday strength of a woman and we have glad well the founder of I I can fly For girls based in me Gory and this is a center to rescue girls who are going through gender-based violence They are as young as 12 and keep your messages and your questions coming and if you'd like to support as well White 5 4 channel on Twitter white 5 4 underscore channel on Instagram and why 2 5 4 on Facebook? You're doing all these things all these good things for the girls You it's like you're solving a problem. Yeah, but Prevention is always better than cure. What are the preventive measures you're taking? What are you doing to to try to to curb this vice? Of course prevention is better than cure and what we are trying to do is I'm trying to find solution To those teenage pregnancy child marriages FGM and the rape cases. All right, let's start with the say Early pregnancy or teenage pregnancies. What are some of the ways you're using you you're using to take up it? We have other programs in the programs like the San Itali towels Program whereby we go to schools. We try to educate them on the issue of the teenage pregnancy On the way they can abstain or they get to understand their bodies as well Exactly. So when we go to the school, we try to bring the boys in the girls on a different groups We talk to them and then the town we give them the San Itali towels We also have the mentorship programs whereby we are working with other organizations We form like a group or a leadership group whereby we are rockets Like ten schools in a month whereby we go and educate them So we have someone like the counselor and the team the mentors from the universities Journalist so we always form a group on the way we can do mentorship, you know Migori County, there's a highlight of teenage pregnancy lately and also there's the high Young kids all the young girls and boys are committing suicide in a highlight Yeah, and this is something that pop the the nation might never know They don't know because it happens mostly in the In the villages in the villages Yeah, so the general public might never get to know about this But these things are happening and if it's happening in migori chances are it's happening someone somewhere else exactly Always happens in somewhere else. Yeah, wow All right, so talking about Talking about preventive measures I've always dreamt of a day where Somebody's doing something amazing like this would have an wholesome approach to it an Inclusive approach to it because I remember when I was growing up It was the role of the brother to take care of the sister It was the role of the dad to take care of the family It was I remember even going to school you told make sure you take care of your sister and whatnot What is the role of the boy child and is there a space for the boy child to try and and and and cup cup this Yeah, everyone has a role but In earlier years the parent used to sit the girls down and then they talk to them about their bodies The changes all they should do or what they should not do But nowadays it's like the parent are too busy. They don't have that time to talk to their girls or their boys Left the work to the teachers. Yeah, and also the teachers is too busy Boy child in the society It's like the girls and the boys don't lead it in a way that they used to lead in earlier years Yeah, there's always that They don't engage Is it because we are moving farther and farther away from our traditions? Yeah, everybody is so busy with what he or she is doing They don't realize there are some things that can make a person to fail All right, it's not about money money and take take take take. It's all about money But I wish they knew that there's other things which are more important more than money Wow Low enforcement, how are you working with the with the law enforcers to? Towards your project We don't and roll our girls directory We normally take them from the police officers the district children's officers of the sub county Children's officers and also from the chief that is their administration officer in the village And then the court so we normally get the girl they wish was ripped They have they have a case and then she is referred to the organization Referred to the organization. Yeah, right as you said earlier the court the due processes in court quite slow and Some of them are not they don't yield results, right? Yeah All right, what do you think can be done different by the judicial system for say Set ups like the villages where you only have one court Somewhere far away, but we have cases coming up every day And maybe the chief is not qualified to hear these cases What do you think can be done different by the judicial system from about okay in me gory? There's something that we are trained to we are trying to come out with Because we want we want the magistrate to be hearing the children's cases at least once in a week. Yeah because It's not everybody who can be able to travel or to go to the court Most of the people fear going to court So we are trying to gather all the cases Then our social workers can take them directly to the court directly to the court. This is what in progress How is the reception? We are working well with the magistrates all the judiciary in migore. All right. Yeah, wonderful progress at least Is uh, what is your vision with icon fly? Um I can fly Where do you see it like what is your dream like say I can fly let me paint a picture for you I can fly has done whatever you wanted to do With I can fly you've achieved every goal. How does what that world you're living in then look like Okay, we normally say I can fly like a butterfly because we normally call our girls butterflies So the skies is always our limit You know when you are starting something you don't feel the burden But Right now the burden is too much on me I never thought it will be that much Yeah, because every day we have new cases Yeah, so for the babies i'm trying on this friday. We are trying to come up with the protection unit I will be having a meeting And we want to separate the mothers and the babies We take we take the babies to another place whereby they can be protected and Be taken care of as the mothers goes to school So in I can fly Our vision is to see that we have rescued More than enough girls And also to see that we have minimized The cases of the teenage pregnancy and the child marriage And probably end up at zero Yeah, we are we are targeting the zero child marriage zero teenage pregnancy unit is hard to do that Yeah, but it's it's the vision. It's the goal. It's it's our goal Yeah, and you're going to achieve that for sure and I like what you're doing. It's amazing. All right, so You said you have sponsors that you work with from the u.s. Yeah, all right, but always more can more can always be done Every day we try Finding more sponsors Yeah, because even if we have two sponsors, it does not mean they can be able to handle the cases We are trying to look for more sponsors. You're always trying to look for more sponsors. Yeah, all right I'll give you a chance since you're on national tv every we are being watched across Africa now Your camera is number four just talk to that person Or talk to the people in whatever way you need the help Even if it's financial or professional help talk to all of them and then we can carry on Yeah, as kenyans, we are supposed to target zero teenage pregnancy zero child marriage And zero female gender motivation cases And for us to do that Our parent must talk to the girls and the boys Because talking to the girls does not mean the boys knows everything he is saying or everything he is doing And also let us make sure the familial defiler goes down because they are supposed to go down And for the donation in case he wants to support our program We have our website, which is w w dot icon fly dot ol g Yeah, that is the way to wish you guys w w w dot icon fly Dot org dot org as always. All right. So uh in migore county Why are you based in migore county? Ah, we don't we normally don't disclose our location that much because of the safety of the girls But we are in migore when you go to migore. There is the rongo sub county offices You can ask where we are Because we normally rescue girls from naroc and when we say where we are they try To trace the girls to trace the girls. Yeah, so you rescue girls from counties around migore as well. No, we I have girls from six counties from six counties. Yeah Wow And also we have the icon fly high school in machacos They can fly high school in machacos. Yeah, so when we educate our girls in primary level We take them to the high school our own high school in machacos And the main reason we choose machacos is because it's a bit far from the cases of the teenage pregnancy The female gender maturation So we thought it's advisable for us to separate the two separate the two. All right, everything is strategic Everything is pre-emailated. Uh, how do you manage to do this? Yeah, I have the best The best team ever Our managers our we have Let me say we have a great team Yeah, and also we do have a team. We have a council whereby it is only the kids the girls So they they always have a view They tell us on when we do this we can Get better And also understand being a mother to over 100 girls. It's not easy at the age of 27 You're only 27. Yeah So I normally try to listen to my girls more than the staffs Yeah, because they are the ones facing the challenges. Yeah, the ones the ones facing the challenges They are the team. They are like the family to me, but The staff maybe most of them think of working, but they don't know where we have come from Yeah, do you have a personal life? Yeah, I have my personal life. I have my ass back. Where do you get the time? I normally don't have the time But um, I have two kids Yeah, one is in class five and one is in nursery I think the one in class five. He saw me one year ago We don't meet regularly And also my husband is a police officer. He works in busier So we normally it's for them to come and look for me Because the moment I leave the girls, there is always a case So you have two families as we speak And this is something that you love Doran These girls also changed my life in a way that I don't have stress Yeah Talking to them just talking to them. My place is always noisy mom these mom that So they always change my life in another way All right, so uh Mental health Is also an issue when you go through all these things Together It gets to a point where your head cannot handle it. Yeah, but we always have a strategy The strategy is for me. I have to like for a month. I have three days of Yes, that is for you. I'm talking about the cars as well because when once you go through something traumatic like this You're bound to go through to succumb to depression and whatnot Is mental health an issue that you're dealing with as well Yeah, we have the mental issue even not that much, but we have the stress and the depression So as I said, we always have a strategy On either sides the staff side the kids side the kids side So what we do is we rescue that is the first point then we we have our counselors So we take the girls to the counselors. They open up about what is bothering them Then we put them in school. All right another thing is that These things might be happening in Kenya, but for somebody who's living in somewhere in Nairobi It doesn't matter the class just somewhere in Nairobi with a comfortable life goes to work in the morning Comes back home in the evening and the salary eats well Goes out over the weekend or spends time with family. It's very hard for them to know That these things are still happening in this country. Do you think it's important that everybody knows That this thing is happening first. Yeah, these things are little especially in the villages You know, we still follow our cultures Like the Masai, they always follow their culture of the female gentles So people in Towns they don't understand Because maybe they are too busy But you see in villages people are they don't have that much to do So they keep on discussing the cultures. Yeah All right, but do you think it is important that the whole nation knows this is happening in migorea? This is happening in Nairobi. This is happening Yeah, it's very important for people to realize that it is happening and also in which percentage Yeah, like for example, yeah to the details because like the HIV infection cases in young girls in migorea. It's too high Yeah, because they still have this culture of inheritance wife inheritance Yeah So maybe the last wife to be inherited is 14 years old that means if the the family is positive She also gets infected But people don't know But I think they should know people should know. Yeah, all right Which leads to my next question because I remember when Sudan had a problem everybody put the blue flag on their instagram awareness was spread, but uh I don't know how successful that was. I don't know if it yielded results after people knowing or When people know, how is it going to help the bigger picture when people just have the knowledge? This is happening. This is happening. What is yeah, like for example that time for Sudan The awareness was too much Everybody knew what is happening But always remember there's someone on the back door who is trying to light the fire again So even if you are creating the awareness Out of 10 people there's always two or three people who don't understand what you are talking about So they still continue doing what you are telling them not to do All right, so uh the more the awareness The easier to solve the problem Yeah, the more the awareness them It is also easier to solve this because people will come together And together we are stronger and the girls will assist because nowadays they are assisting if we tell them to go through the fgm They just learn away to a rescue center because they know people are going to support them exactly So support support support support every day. It's all about support and let's stop the stigma Let's stop the stigma and support these people Yeah And awareness and awareness. I'm looking for like five pointers Yeah, we must create the awareness And the awareness is what we lead to the stop. Yeah, all right, but always understand they won't stop in an easy way because There is people there who knows that the the fgm is good Because they went through the fgm. So it's cultural Yeah, so if you tell them don't uh, don't Don't cut your girls They always think you are telling them to go against their culture. Yeah Okay, the last thing and this is a little bit political But politics is us and we are politics. Our leaders are chosen through all this politics Do you think the women leaders in parliament are doing enough? Um, I don't think so. Maybe they are busy doing something else Yeah, but in migore we are trying to engage our first lady Yeah The wife to called obado and she is really doing good on fighting against the teenage pregnancy. Yeah All right. So at least there's support Uh and good political world in migore creating the awareness but about the solution. I don't know about that All right, wonderful. Thank you very much for coming and thank you very much for sharing It's not easy to share. I know and uh, I'll give you another chance to remind them your website and social media And now they can get to join the tree or jump on the tree Okay, you can find me on my facebook page. That is gladwell washera And also our organization facebook page. That is the icon fly project migore Uh, we don't have our twitter at the moment But our website is www.iconfly.org. All right. Thank you very much gladwell for coming Thank you very much for what you're doing and all the best in your endeavors. Okay. Thank you so much I'm so happy to be here as Santisana. Yes, we had gladwell, uh, the founder of icon fly for girls Based in migore and this is a center to save the girls who don't have any hope Or who don't have somebody to fight for them if you'd like to support that you www.iconfly.org Right that this is strength of a woman and she's our strength of a woman of the day My name is by Moses. It's by more social media val is coming up next with girl's talk hot topic. You don't want to miss it