Celebrating Young Women Leaders at My Sisters’ Keeper Foundation.
By Sheila Kimani
Around the world, women are a fundamental facet of society, a pillar to the family unit and leaders in their spheres of influence. International Women’s day 2021 is a great time to reflect on how far women have come in the quest for equality while rallying change for the better. At UNDP Kenya we are focusing on the month of March as an opportunity to ‘March for Women’.
This year’s theme “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world,” celebrates the tremendous efforts by women around the world towards shaping a more equal future amidst recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. It also focusses on Women leadership, navigating leadership challenges amidst the global pandemic and offers a great opportunity to reflect upon the gaps that need action.
Empowering the youth is one of UNDP’s key milestones towards achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and thanks to the Emerging Leaders Foundation, UNDP facilitated the training of young women leaders through My Sister’s Keeper project. The Emerging Leaders Foundation project falls under the Strengthening public accountability and integrity systems for accountable governance (SPAIS) project interventions and sought to contribute to efforts aimed at corruption prevention for inclusive governance, human rights, peace, security, and improved service delivery for all
UNDP recognizes that women’s empowerment is a rights issue, a justice issue, an equity issue, and a development issue. Women make up majority of the world’s population and corruption often impedes the progress towards achievement of SDG 5. For this reason, a gendered dimension was developed towards addressing corruption matters and ladies from My Sisters Keeper were empowered with skills to this regard. During this time, ladies from the health and wellness fields were empowered with skills that would enable them to identify and report corruption cases, empower women to speak up and take up leadership positions within their communities.
Esther, a participant in the My Sister’s Keeper who is using her digital advocacy skills to amplify the voices of women in Dandora, through Positive Young Women Voices (PYWV) -a Community Based Organization dedicated to defending the rights of women and girls- shares what it meant to be part of the Emerging Leaders Foundation.
For the longest time, I thought that you must be in a position of influence for you to be considered a ‘leader’. I assumed that leadership roles and responsibilities belonged only to the ‘leaders’ and that as a citizen, I had to look up to the leadership for guidance. Often, I would try to change my behavior so I could fit into different social circles, never believing in myself enough to show up as Esther. I would constantly let other peoples’ opinions inform my decisions, but all these beliefs and doubts prevented me from doing the things I loved.
It was only after attending My Sister’s Keeper, a training program by Emerging Leaders Foundation that I realized how our personalities make us stand out. I finally understood that nothing was wrong with me, I just had a different perspective of life and it was okay, I never needed to fit in. Overall, the Leadership training empowered me to embrace my individuality and do my best with what I had.
As a health advocate, the program equipped me with knowledge on social accountability, public participation, advocacy and personal branding. With the knowledge gained during the project and while engaging it in my communal service work, I have managed to change my views on leadership and I am well aware that a leader is anyone willing to take a stand and that is what I chose to do daily. With this knowledge I always engage and empower the young ladies I come across so I can spark their interests in leadership. My Sisters’ Keeper was a life changing opportunity for which I am forever grateful
One of the Quotes I live by is: Be proactive and not reactive, make positive and value-added choices. You are the captain of your ship and the author of your destiny.
About Emerging Leaders Foundation
The Emerging Leaders Foundation project falls under the Strengthening public accountability and integrity systems for accountable governance (SPAIS) project by UNDP Kenya. SPAIS contributes to efforts by the government and non-state actors aimed at prevention of corruption and combating corruption for inclusive governance, human rights, peace, security and improved service delivery for all.
The SPAIS project is a critical and relevant initiative, focused on promoting transparency and accountability while paying attention to gender equality and empowerment of young women to secure Sustainable development Goals (SDGs).
First person narrative by: Esther Aoko –Sexual and Reproductive Health Youth Advocate.
