AMBASSADOR VANE AMINGA

My name is Vane Aminga and I am an MSc Sustainable Energy student at the University of Edinburgh under the Chevening Scholarship. I come from Kisii County in the South Western part of Kenya. I studied in a village school until I made it to a national high school in Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya. This was in 2005. In high school, I met girls from all over Kenya and I learnt about various cultures and beliefs. We were the pioneer class of Starehe Girls Centre and we were only seventy two in number. If one of us went missing, it was easy to know. Before we finished high school, one of my friends from Northern Kenya dropped out and there were speculations that she may have been married. I was saddened by this turn of events and decided to do something about it after high school. I vowed that no girl should fall through the cracks of retrogressive cultures if I could help it. After passing very well in high school, I joined the University of Nairobi in October 2010 to study my Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering. In 2011, I traveled to Northern Kenya only to find out that so many girls from the region do not get the chance to go to school like girls from my community. Northern Kenya communities are nomadic pastoralists and most of the girls in the community are negatively affected by retrogressive cultures. Everything was new to me; the culture, the language, and the harsh climate. To change that, I founded Fly Sister Fly Foundation to help some of the girls. I got some of my friends from college to join my team and together we are objectively championing for the rights of girls from these marginalized communities. It has not been an easy journey as 95% of my volunteers do not come from Northern Kenya. Our mantra is to "Empower beyond Tribal Borders" since tribalism has crippled progress in Kenya. Currently, 6 years later, Fly Sister Fly Foundation is supporting education programmes in Northern Kenya,conducting empowerment through advocacy campaigns and supporting women and girls to live a life of dignity. Our work has been recognised on both local and international platforms, including the Queen's Young Leaders programme, President Obama's Young African Leadership Initiative Tech Camp and Brightest Young Minds in South Africa. Despite all this, we still have a long way to go, and I believe platforms like Face of Kenya UK will not only highlight our work, but also show young people that you do not need much for you to actively participate in supporting equality, democracy and civic engagement programmes.