How one woman’s refusal to be silenced is now helping protect children in Kenya

Lilian was born into the Njemps community in Baringo, Kenya, where a girl is often raised not as a child to be educated, but as wealth to be kept. Her parents didn’t send her to school. Not because they didn’t love her, but because their culture had taught them a girl’s future wasn’t worth investing in.

Lilian refused to accept that.

She began sneaking to school — sitting through lessons, then running home to face punishment for going. Eventually, the pressure at home became too much, and she left. Neighbours who saw how badly she wanted to learn took her in and kept her enrolled. Strangers became her family.

When Lilian finished Class 8, she was told it was time to undergo Female Genital Cutting (FGC), so she could be married. She ran — not away from home, but towards her education. With support from the people around her, she made it to high school, and went on to finish Form Four.

But then the pressure returned. This time she was told that she was old enough to be cut and married off — to a man the same age as her own father.

Lilian said no.

That single word cost her almost everything. Under her community’s custom, her father declared it taboo for an uncut woman to marry, and vowed she would remain in his household as a child for the rest of her life — a vow he held until he died.

Today, Lilian has her own children and is raising them alone — not by choice, but because the same tradition that denied her an education also denied her the right to build a family of her own, including getting married.

It has not been an easy life. Lilian is a single mother in a community that still doesn’t fully recognise her choices, carrying most of it alone.

But this is also where her story becomes about more than survival.

The woman once denied to sit inside a classroom and nearly forced into child labour, FGC and early marriage, is now a So They Can Champion Mother, walking from village to village to talk to families about why education matters. Lilian is determined that her children, and the children within her community, will have what she didn’t.

What is So They Can’s Champions Network?

So They Can’s Champions Network is made up of local parents and community volunteers across Kenya and Tanzania — every school community has at least two, chosen by the children themselves.

Champions are trusted, respected members of their communities — people who believe every child has a right to an education, regardless of gender, religion or background, and who families feel safe turning to. Their work includes:

• Raising community awareness about the value of education
• Running school-based programs and training
• Identifying and removing the barriers keeping children out of school
• Challenging harmful practices such as child marriage, female genital cutting and child labour
• Offering confidential, safe support to vulnerable children
• Reporting child rights violations to the relevant authorities

In Kenya, Champions receive a modest monthly stipend for this work; in Tanzania, they can access small loans to build an income alongside it. Both countries provide training, and in Tanzania, Champions can gain formal government recognition as registered “Safe Homes” for children.

Lilian is one of many Champions like her — people who once had no one standing up for them, and who have chosen to become that person for someone else.

Learn more

Stories like Lilian’s are why the Champions Network exists, and why it needs to keep growing. Explore the Champions Network or make a donation to support our work.

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Written by Moureen — So They Can Msomi Scholarship Alumni and Ambassadors of Hope Champion