President Barack Obama said of Dr. Josephine Kulea, she’s “a young woman who gives me hope.” Born into the Samburu tribe of Northern Kenya, she was in sixth grade when she rescued a girl from child marriage. Dr. Kulea’s early activism inspired her to create the Samburu Girls Foundation (SGF). The group rescues girls, as young as seven years old, from child marriages. Samburu also brings a “holistic” and “community” approach to ending traditional tribal practices, such as female genital mutilation (FGM), and “Beading”, the rite of passage when young men, before their marriage age of 30, may have sex with any unmarried girl or woman of their choosing. For our Global Activism segment, Dr. Kulea shares her hardships and triumphs in her quest to rescue girls and support their education through college.
