Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs
Facebook Twitter YouTube Trending Globally Podcast Instagram LinkedIn Tumblr Email list

Education, Opportunity and Prosperity

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

12 p.m. – 1 p.m.

Joukowsky Forum

Watch on Youtube

Watson Institute Senior Fellow Pamela Reeves hosts a discussion with Kakenya Ntaiya, founder of the Kakenya Center for Excellence in Kenya.

Engaged at the age of 5, Kakenya was to participate in a female circumcision ceremony as a young teenager and then be married. But she had a different plan. First, she negotiated with her father and willingly agree to be circumcised -- only if he would allow her to finish high school. She continued her education at Randolph-Macon Women's College in Virginia, and went on to get a PhD from Pittsburgh. She fulfilled her promise to bring her skills and her dreams back to her village, and has built a transformative school and holistic educational program for rural Kenyan girls, all of whom avoid female genital mutilation and child marriage as they get a world class education.

View Kakenya Ntaiya's TED talk here: https://www.ted.com/talks/kakenya_ntaiya_a_girl_who_demanded_school.

Africa Initiative
Policy & Progress: Investing in Women for Peace, Security and Stability
Women Empowered