Sarah Lesiamito – On a Mission to Save Girls in Northern Kenya from FGM

Sarah Lesiamito was born in Samburu, Northern Kenya, a pastoral community where life revolves around raising and caring for animals. “My parents are pastoralists; they never went to school,” Sarah said. “In Kenya, women don’t go to school. I am very lucky to have gone to school, because when I was young, all my sisters were married off.”

When Sarah was six years old, a teacher came to the village. ”Because I could speak Swahili, she told me I had to come to school,” Sarah said. The school was far away from the village, so Sarah would have to leave her home and stay with another family. “My father did not want me to be away, so he took me back home,” she said. 

That missed opportunity, and the events that followed, would come to define Sarah’s life and mission. “I was nine years old when I went through FGM, female genital mutilation, a cultural practice that the youngest of my age go through as a sign of passage,” she said. “It is mandatory, there’s no way you could have resisted when your parents insist that you have to go through it.”

The World Health Organization considers FGM a violation of the human rights of women and girls. According to WHO, FGM includes all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. WHO estimates that more than 230 million girls and women alive today have undergone FGM in 30 countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

Sarah is calm telling her story, with occasional moments when, remembering what she went through, causes her to pause and catch her breath. She is resplendent in traditional dress, accenting her long red gown with the colorful beaded necklaces, headdress, and bracelets worn by women from Kenya. 

Sarah Lesiamito and Patricia King (Photo by Woman Around Town)

We are sitting in the home of Patricia King, a critically acclaimed mystery writer, who has become one of Sarah’s benefactors. Patricia was in Africa doing research for one of her historical novels when she met Sarah and was taken with the young woman’s courage, energy, and dedication. To help other women avoid FGM and continue their education, Sarah opened her home to them, half a dozen to start. Now the Sidai Resource Centre houses 49 young women who have escaped FGM and have been able to continue their educations.

“Horror” is the perfect word to describe FGM. Sarah went through the procedure with two sisters and three cousins. “Before you go through FGM, they teach you how to be brave,” she said. The girls’ heads were shaved and beds prepared for them. The women who perform FGM are not trained and not medical professionals. “Two women pinned me down, so it was hard for me to resist,” she said. “I was only nine years old and the people who should have protected me didn’t. My mother was there, my grandmother was there, and none of them protected me.”

One of Sarah’s cousins passed out and wasn’t taken to the hospital. “She never woke up and died,” Sarah said. 

Michael and Sarah Lesiamito with their banner. (Photo by Patricia King)

Once a young girl is “cut,” she is married, her father, in turn, receives animals, usually cows. Sarah’s arranged marriage with Michael turned out to be fortuitous. “Michael came out of that [pastoral] culture, but he decided when he was a little boy, that he wanted to be a ranger,” Patricia said. “He got the education he needed to do that. So this was a marriage, as we say, that was made in heaven because here’s a woman who has the capacity to be something different and he’s a man who has the capacity to recognize what she went through.” Sarah and Michael have now been married 39 years. He supports her work and accompanied her on her trip to New York City.

Sarah arrived at Michael’s home soon after she was cut. He could see that she was still suffering and in pain. In the ranger’s vehicle, he transported her to the hospital so that she could receive the care she needed, care which had been denied by her family. After she was discharged, she stayed at Michael’s home to recover. What Sarah was certain about was that no daughter of hers would ever go through FGM. “It was a very traumatic, painful experience,” she said. (Sarah now has two sons and one daughter.)

Michael had a sister who was Sarah’s age and one day they were visited by a teacher. Impressed with Sarah’s language abilities and her intellect, she told Sarah she needed to enroll in school. “I waited until Michael came back,” Sarah said. “I told him that the teacher said I should go to school and he said OK.”

Sidai Girls and Sarah with a retired teacher, Leparmarai, who goes to the Sidai Centre to teach the girls. (Photo by Patricia King)

But going to school as a married woman, who had responsibilities at home, would be a challenge. Sarah would wake up at 6 a.m., do her chores and then walk two hours to the school. She would stay for two or three hours at school, and then walk the two hours back home where she would do the cooking. Sarah maintained this routine from the time she was nine until she turned 12. Knowing she wanted to be a teacher, Sarah completed college. Her first job was as a teacher employed by the government. With Michael’s help, she went on to earn a master’s degree in special education.

As a teacher, Sarah began to encounter girls from her community who said they were being forced to go through FGM, even though the practice was made illegal in Kenya in 2011. Those who are involved risk three years in prison and a $2,000 fine. “The community does it because it’s a right of passage,” she said. “If you have not gone through FGM, you’re not [able to get married]. That’s what you think. You’re not married, you are discriminated against, and you cannot participate in anything.”

Sarah’s experience remains vividly real to her. “You’ll never forget the scene,” she said. “Just imagine somebody strange coming [into your home] and people pinning you down and they kill you because something has been taken.” Aside from the psychological trauma, the physical problems with FGM are long lasting. “There’s a nurse in the health center, and she was telling me about the problems women have when they are giving birth,” Sarah said. “Scars can break open and there can be infections.”

L to R: Mother of a Sidai girl, former cutter, who has given up the practice, Sarah, another mother of a Sidai girl. (Photo by Patricia King)

Sarah’s goal became to help other women. “I know the problems that women and younger girls face,” she said. “I know that because I went through FGM and I survived it, so having all this discrimination that women go through because of cultural practices that are practiced in my community, I decided to come up with a resource center.” 

In the beginning, the resource centre was Sarah’s home. “Where to put them,” she said. “I opened my house for the girls and six came. Then with some time, I got another girl who was subjected to the cut, and I brought her to my home. The parents were not willing to take her back.” When Sarah rescues a girl after FGM, she follows up to see who exactly was involved. “I report them to the authorities,” she said. 

Sarah admits that she does worry about her own safety. “By stopping a girl from FGM, I will stop the girl from marrying off and giving cows to the father,” she said. “But I’m not scared because I worked with my community and I know how to handle it.” 

In fact, Sarah has developed a strategy for working with the elders. “Because the girls remain in the community, their parents can see them,” she said. “The community can watch them thrive.” One of the girls Sarah rescued is now a nurse and her ability to help those who need medical care has been important to the community. The father, who was initially angry at Sarah, now is proud of his daughter.

When Sarah had nine girls staying in her home, she knew they had to expand. With help, she constructed a temporary shelter. Now the Sidai Resource Centre consists of a building that houses 49 girls with a dorm, library, kitchen, dining room and a full-time housekeeper. “The girls can sleep, go to school, and in the library, they can do their homework,” she said.

Sarah with schoolgirls happy to have sanitary pads that mean they do not have to miss school during menstruation.  (Photo by Patricia King)

Patricia actually met Michael before she met Sarah. Patricia did know about FGM because of the research she did for one of her historical mysteries. (She writes under her pen name, Annamarie Alfieri.) But when she sat down with Sarah, she developed a greater understanding of how this procedure impacts the women forced to go through it. Learning that Sarah, now a teacher and a mentor for so many young women, had experienced FGM, increased her desire to get involved. In the short-term, she asked Sarah what she could do to help. “I told her that I have girls who don’t go to school because we cannot afford sanitary napkins,” she said. “Girls miss school because of a lack of sanitary towels when they have their menstrual period. They cannot afford it.”

Patricia immediately got to work and, through a friend, found pads that are sewn by a consortium of women in Nairobi. “They are pure cotton, and each girl got eight washable ones,” said Patricia. “They cost me $16 a girl.” 

Long-term, Patricia set up a 501(c) charity to raise funds for the Sidai Resource Centre. “We now have 49 girls to feed and I never want it to happen that a girl will want to go to Sidai and be rescued and we can’t afford to house another person,” Patricia said, adding that she’s already reached out to many of her friends to help.

After Sarah told people in the village that Patricia, a New Yorker, was helping the resource centre, one man wanted to give the visitor a cow. Needless to say, she declined the cow, but enjoyed the celebration they had in her honor.

Sarah was visiting New York during the United Nations General Assembly. Although she was not asked to speak to the delegates about FGM, she knows that the U.N. is focused on the problem. Most efforts, however, encourage countries to outlaw the practice. But according to Equality Now, out of 92 countries where FGM is practiced, only 51 countries have specifically prohibited it. And like what’s happening in Kenya, even laws against FGM doesn’t stop some women from being forced to undergo the procedure because of deeply held cultural beliefs. That’s why the grass roots work that Sarah does is so important.

Sarah does not want to eradicate her culture. She wants, “to make sure that the women in the pastoral communities are empowered,” she said. “And when you give a girl an education, she is empowered.”

For more information about Sarah and the Sidai Resource Centre, go to the website.

Top photo of Sarah Lesiamito by Woman Around Town