“The journey of this foundation started when I was a young boy”

As a boy growing up, proving myself to my father was very important for me. This need to earn his approval has been a part of my whole life, and an obstacle to my work and our relationship.

It started on the morning before my older sister’s wedding. The day before a Maasai girl gets married, there will be a ceremony to say goodby to the girl getting married. That day was the first time that I understood that no Maasai girl is making the choice to get married. That day, I understood that they don’t have a choice, they are just fulfilling the wishes of their fathers.  

That evening, after my sisters ceremony, I noticed my sister had become very sad and was crying. I ran to her and said, “sister what’s wrong, it’s your wedding day. Why aren’t you happy.”  She looked at me and said, “it is not my wedding day. I’m doing what our father wishes me to do, fulfilling his wish.” She grabbed my shoulders and told me, “look at this man that is marrying me. That man is like my great grandfather! Does that look like a man I would marry? A child like me!” My sister was 14 years old at the time. 

I was shocked.  I stopped and I just looked at her. He was very old, like she said, old as if he was my great grandfather. She sat me down and told me that all she wanted was that I grow up and remember all of this. Remember, and not let this happen to our younger sisters. Not let our father do this to them like he had done to her. She wanted me to grow into a man who would raise a voice against this practice, and against our fathers wishes for it. Her wish was that I make sure I give our sisters the opportunity to grow and make decisions for themselves, and to get the future they deserved.  “That’s all I want you to do,” she told me.  

The next time my father married off one of our sisters, he waited till I was away, traveling long distances with my brother and our cows, looking for land they could graze on. When we returned months later, we found that our younger sister, who was 13 at the time, had been married off and was gone, now living 80 or so miles away. We learned she was pregnant, and terribly mistreated by her husband. My brother and I decided that we needed to act, to take care of our sister who wasn’t able to leave her situation alone. We traveled to her new village, and in the cover of night, rescued her from her husband. The three of us set out for the city, where we were able to contact an organization to help us find a safe place for her to stay, and enroll her in school. Here, nobody could find her, here she would be safe and earn an education. With this action, she would be able to start making choices for herself in life. And after 3 months of my sisters unknown location, we let our father know that it was us who had saved her from her husband. Furious, he knew he had no recourse to go get her out of school, because childhood marriage is an illegal act according to the Tanzanian government, and any action to take her back to her husband, would put my father at risk of being found out by authorities, and sent to prison for marrying off a child.

That was the last daughter my father ever tried to marry off. That action was me keeping a promise to my older sister, and taking my first steps towards a promise to all Maasai girls.

15 years later, with the help of people around around the world, especially the U.S. states of Massachusetts and Ohio, the dream of stopping childhood marriage in Maasailand came to life. Right now we have over 300 girls who all are in school, some having graduated, because of the team effort of these individuals who decided to bring change to these young girls.

With this good starting point, this foundation is ready to provide opportunities for more Maasai girls as more and more girls come to us each year, looking for our help. In order for this to happen, we need more sponsors and more support to keep our momentum going.

Because of my sisters’ wish and her bravery for speaking up, my eyes were opened.

In order to change centuries of gender inequality, put in place by a world lead by men, we have to take change step by step. We are starting here, with the end of childhood marriage through education for young girls.

- Isaya Oleporuo, co-founder of Osotuwa Foundation