 Waking tirelessly to improve the lives of women and children is part of what Elsie Wandera, CEO heroes for change, founder Endometriosis Foundation of Kenya and Puriti & Papas does. I'm 40 years old, was born in Kisumu County. But I come from Siopot, which is in Busea County. And I'm passionate about women and young people. And yeah, for a start. So I grew up in Nairobi. So ni mi ni Ms. Chana Wamta. I was raised here in Nairobi, of course, by both my parents. I come from a family of four, so I'm the second born. And growing up, so we grew up very well. When I think about it in my childhood memories, a lot of it is fun, it's memorable for me. Because we were a very close knit family. We like to spend time together as a family. And yeah, we had a lot of fun. I think our family used to have nya machoma plots and stuff like that. And we would have parties and we would hang out with our cousins. So a very comfortable journey, I guess for me. I also had to endure severe period pains every month for many years before realizing what was exactly wrong with her. Part of my growing up, I learned and I discovered that I was suffering from a condition called endometriosis. And it's a condition that affects millions of women around the world. But it impacted my growing up. And even till today, it continues to affect me as a woman. So when I looked around me, there's not a lot of solutions. So for one, treatment is not accessible for a lot of girls, for a lot of women. The girls who are in primary school cannot articulate the condition they're suffering from. So for me it's important to empower another woman and another girl to understand the problem that she's facing. So that she can be able to access healthcare equally as I do. Okay, although I don't think we're there yet but because endometriosis does not have a cure. But I think for me, when I see people in uncomfortable situations, it bothers me. I'm like, can I do something about it versus trying to run my mouth and say the government is not doing etc. I feel like the responsibility is on me. While in high school, she missed several classes and even in campus, she was termed as an attention seeker. I remember when I was in high school, when endometriosis started manifesting guys would say like I'm feigning illness because I'm trying to get away from doing school activities and stuff like that and that hurt. It impacted my self-esteem in a way because I thought there was something wrong with me and then also when I growing up, getting older getting into the employment space and the marketplace in general even just being able to hang out with my friends could not happen because some days I would be in so much pain I'm unable to move around or my flow would be so heavy I would need to change my pad like every so often. Of course that gets uncomfortable for me as a woman so it meant also my work attendance was impacted and I remember conversations in the workplace like what kind of pain is LC going through that every other woman is not going through so that comparison and invalidation was really rampant and that for me is what I do not want another woman to go through. But just what is endometriosis? Endometriosis is a condition is a whole body disease and what happens is the tissue that grows inside the lining that forms the lining of the uterus inside a woman's uterus is what grows outside the uterus and it deposits anywhere else around the pelvic area around even the chest for some it has actually been found also in the brain and in other areas so endometriosis like I said has no cure so what it is just to put it in very simple terms is it's a condition that causes debilitating pain for a woman impairing and just compromising the quality of her life some of the symptoms that come along with endometriosis include painful periods and many others as LC explains the symptoms of endometriosis are like the first one of course is debilitating pain and this is pain around the pelvic it can be around the pelvic area depending on where the endometriosis manifests itself it will manifest itself wherever it is sitting like for example if it's in the chest the chest will be in pain or your pelvic area will be in pain or you'll have painful bowel movement you'll have problems passing stool or just going to the toilet for urinating and stuff like that endometriosis is also the third cause of infertility among women so that's also another symptom Information concerning endometriosis is scarce and the misconceptions around it are so much that many women suffer through endometriosis in silence I realized the need and the gap that exists in society in terms of just understanding what endometriosis is so my role becomes speaking up about it advocating for the younger girls who are in schools making sure that even our medics and the medical industry from the doctors to insurance companies etc are sensitized to the fact that women are actually suffering in this condition because even the medical doctors some of them do not understand endometriosis and it's a complex condition it mimics a lot of other conditions so it can be confused for something else and even when you go to a doctor it can be easily dismissed one of the things that one of my gynaecologist was telling me is that I need to give birth for this pain to go away and I'm sure there are a lot of girls who are being told to conceive for the pain to disappear but that's a myth and there's no evidence whatsoever that that will cure your endometriosis and that's why we need the right people women to be empowered with the right information and knowledge so that they can make the right choices as I was talking about the fact that we know that this endometriosis is affecting marriages because one of the symptoms of endometriosis is painful sex so women are in conflict with their husbands they are unable to conceive I mean society is on their backs like when are you going to have your baby you got married the other day you need to bring us babies and so there's a lot of pressure and for me I feel like that is undue pressure on any woman my life is mine if God decides to bless me today with a child that's fantastic but it's none of your business and that's what I feel like I have become a huge advocate for and saying we really need to mind our own business like let's stop asking some certain questions you don't know the impact that it has on the woman you don't know what she's going through you don't know the challenges that she's facing and so for me that it goes back to why I do what I do for me it's just to keep encouraging the woman making sure that she knows she's not alone secondly she can overcome the situation because treating and managing endometriosis has to take a multidisciplinary approach so you don't not only go to your gynaecologist but you also have to go see a either a counselling or a therapist to be able to manage the burden of the disease Empowering women is equivalent to empowering the entire society I started Pyrruchia on purpose because again it was just a special place there was a special place in my heart for it because of I experienced sexual failure very early you know as a 16-year-old and so for me I thought about it and I was like how many younger girls do not have a space to talk about the challenges around navigating just this whole path because we live in a very sexually saturated world today and aided by technology kids can access stuff and information and content that really just makes it even more difficult to understand why so for me the reason why Pyrruchia on purpose because now the program comes in with the why because even in church we are just told don't have sex but it's like there's no why we're not helping the end user or the person that we're communicating to understand why why is it important and so for me because I'm a believer and I'm a born again Christian for me I believe that sex is a gift from God and by God for the context of marriage between a man and a woman so very specific and so those are the tenets that I use and so I use the Bible just to help women see that it's important for you to pursue righteousness in order for you to unlock your purpose because the Bible says I think in Matthew 633 seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and then all these things shall be added unto you I think that scripture has been used to think about material things in the world that you know I'm just supposed to seek after God but we forget about the righteousness part which is a purity element and I really believe that if I focused if I because I was able to focus on living a sexually pure life after I realized why it's important it helped me focus on my purpose and the thing that God has called me here on this earth to do so I said you know the reason why I'm passionate about it is so that I can help another girl who might be having the same challenges you know might be having the same struggles feeling a sense of you know like they are not worthy or they are not enough or they are not forgiven just because of the intrinsic nature of sexual sin and how invaluable it makes you feel so it's just again creating that community to make sure that hey the girls one are not alone so if you experience sexual failure at whatever age whatever stage in your life you are not condemned you are forgiven you know for as long as you come into a relationship with Christ and then help you focus on the bigger issues