A goal of Christian women in Nairobi, Kenya to help girls in the rural Masai tribe is turning into a success story in the heart of Masai land, some 75 miles from the country’s capitol. From its early days in 2001, ANN has watched the progress of the Kajiado Adventist Rehabilitation and Education Center.

During a recent visit to Nairobi, ANN once again visited Kajiado and talked with the center’s director, Jacinta Loki. The interview, which follows, connects the center’s mission to provide fear-free Christian education with the acute need to repair basic human rights, which are often overshadowed by traditional Masai beliefs and practices that leave scores of Masai girls without education and force them into early marriages.

In 2003, Jacinta Loki revealed the dire background of her young boarders: “When they come here, some of them have never even seen a bed.” They came scared, afraid of their own shadow, she said. Now, one wants to become Kenya’s president.

Adventist News Network: The Kajiado Center opened in the year 2000 with a group of 14 Masai girls. It looks like you’ve expanded all around?

Jacinta Loki: Yes. We have 160 girls in both primary and secondary level. The first group graduated in 2006, they are the ones who are in form two, right now in high school. The second group graduated in 2007, and now we will have quite a good number that are supposed to graduate by the end of this year. God willing. What I like with these girls is that they are ready to learn, and despite their age and background they are focused. They have a vision.

ANN: Vision. Can you explain what it means for young Masai girls?

Loki: It means that they know what they want in life. When you talk to some of them they will tell you that they would like to be doctors, some of them would like to be pilots, like Nancy Nipinevoy, who is now in grade eight. I was talking with Sombet, another girl, and she was like, “I would like to be a president of this country.” So, you see that they are very ambitious. And if I tell you that when she came here, she was married to an 80-year old man.

ANN: Are all of the girls staying here on the compound or do some of them walk from nearby villages?

Loki: The 160 girls that I am talking about, those are the boarders. In 2002, we wanted to start a day section whereby we have those children from around the community who will come to school. There is a small group that comes in the morning, and then they go back to their homes in the evening. This [helps them learn to] count and write, but also to mingle with others.

ANN: As you are now well established in the community, what are people saying about your center?

Loki: Looking back, it was not easy because you are talking about the Masai community. I remember a year after we started there was this rumor going around that this church is a cult, some of them spread bad messages that their children will be eaten or something like that ? but afterward when we started interacting with them they in fact started slowly changing that notion. Right now, many parents would like their children to come here. We are pleased, very happy about that. They are very positive and they are very proud of the center, [due in part] to their good performance. [People] are very positive about the center.

ANN: The Kajiado Center was established as a home of refuge because of the abuse that the girls encounter in their own homes or villages. Is this still the primary reason for operating the center?

Loki: Oh yes, we still rescue the young Masai girls who are subjected to female genital mutilation and those ones who were supposed to be married off. FGM and forced marriages are interlinked. In this community before a girl is married off she must undergo FGM. I think the [most recent] case that we have dealt with is this eight-year-old who is married off to an 80-year-old man.

ANN: Eight years old?

Loki: Yes. It is very sad. I remember when we handled the case—and we normally work together with the [government] children’s department—together with a police we went to her village. This situation was very sad because she was still such a baby. I remember the children’s officer holding her on her lap and after a few minutes the child was deep asleep. Now she is in grade eight and she is one of the girls who will be graduating to high school next year.

ANN: The community, as you say, is accepting the center, but on the other hand there must also be anger when those girls are removed from their homes. How do you deal with the anger? How do the girls deal with the anger of the village when they return home for a holiday?

Loki: I like that question. When you talk of a Masai marriage there is exchange of dowry. Dowry in this community comes in the form of cows and cows are highly valued. After you have rescued these girls, if any of their husbands had taken cows then it means that these old men have to return back all the cows that they had taken. That one is not easy. This reminds me of instances when some of these parents have come here to fetch back their girl. I remember one Sabbath afternoon when we had rescued two of them, this old lady comes abusing every one. She wanted to fight with me. When she realized that I was not moving she went to the next step of stripping naked. Stripping naked in the African setting is like a curse. So, she stripped naked abusing everybody and eventually she went away with the girls so we were forced to go back with the police and bring back the children. Some girls stay on the compound because they fear of abusive treatment in the village.

ANN: Are the men equally angry?

Loki: We have also had some old Masai men come here and—unfortunately or fortunately I happen to come from this community—you know, somehow if they realize that my father is the same age they are, that they believe that they can also curse me because they believe that I am going against their culture. I am one of them so why am I doing all this to them? They don’t see the other side; they don’t see it as an abuse. To them it is their way of life. “So why are you interfering and after all you are one of us and you know everything, you know it is our culture, there isn’t anything wrong,” they argue. So, it has not been easy. Our prayer is that God should help us so that at least these girls that are in high school may even go up to the university, or to colleges and we know after that, obviously, when they start working, this notion that women are not only to be seen but they can also be very important players in their community will reach the villages.  That is our prayer and we believe it is possible.

ANN: As you look at your present needs, what is the biggest challenge here at Kajiado?

Loki: The major challenge we are facing right now is that I have talked of the vast group that graduated in 2006 and as you can see our school ends at eighth grade, so these girls need to transfer to a high school. School fees are hard to cover. We need to feed the girls that are in primary [education] and also pay school fees for those girls now in high school. The most urgent need right now is to have our own secondary school. That would be great, because it means that after they have graduated at least the burden of taking them outside will come to an end.

ANN: When you say taking them outside to a high school, are you referring to a neighborhood Adventist school?

Loki: All of them are going to our schools.

ANN: How is the Adventist Church in Kenya responsive to your challenges?

Loki: Our schools have been very supportive. It is a big advantage that we have our own schools. But even so, as we took [our graduates] to high school, the principals accepted them but their school fees are not yet settled. Considering what happened in Kenya after elections, everything here has changed—the cost of food and everything. So as much as [the schools] would like to help we are not talking of a single girl here, we are talking of quite a number of children. The schools have been very supportive, but the school fees still need to be paid.

ANN: As you look back at your eight years at the center, what images offset the challenges you face today?

Loki: Despite the challenges, despite everything that the teachers and the children face, I would like to thank God for this center. Before, these girls didn’t have a place to run to. A good example is a girl named Eda, who is in form two right now. This girl walked for [about 30 miles] carrying her four month-old baby until she arrived here. She is a very bright girl. In fact, she is university material and she’d like to be a lawyer. There also is a 13-year-old Tempolee, who is very angry with her parents and she would also like to be a lawyer so she may protect the other Masai girls who are being abused. We have another one who is also in grade three right now. When she came here she was only 12 and already pregnant. I thank God because later on she gave birth and we returned the baby back home and she is still in school. We also have four or five girls who are less than 15 years old and they have babies but we keep encouraging them that despite the difficulties that they have on their own at least they will have a bright future. As we talk, we have quite a good number who are already baptized in the Adventist Church and most of their parents are coming to church through the witness of their girls.