Picture Dictionary & Books : Free for English Learner!

There's a belief among our people that morning brings good news.

So I had to come up with something to do with the morning, because there's good news in the morning.

And in the village also, there is one chief, an elder, who if he says yes, everybody will follow him.

So I went to him very early in the morning, as the sun rose.

The first thing he sees when he opens his door is, it's me.

"My child, what are you doing here?"

"Well, Dad, I need help. Can you support me to go to America?"

I promised him that I would be the best girl, I will come back, anything they wanted after that, I will do it for them.

He said, "Well, but I can't do it alone."

He gave me a list of another 15 men that I went -- 16 more men -- every single morning I went and visited them.

They all came together. The village, the women, the men, everybody came together to support me to come to get an education.

I arrived in America. As you can imagine, what did I find?

I found snow! I found Wal-Marts, vacuum cleaners, and lots of food in the cafeteria.

I was in a land of plenty.

I enjoyed myself, but during that moment while I was here, I discovered a lot of things.

I learned that that ceremony that I went through when I was 13 years old, it was called female genital mutilation.

I learned that it was against the law in Kenya.

I learned that I did not have to trade part of my body to get an education.

I had a right. And as we speak right now, three million girls in Africa are at risk of going through this mutilation.

I learned that my mom had a right to own property.

I learned that she did not have to be abused because she is a woman.

Those things made me angry. I wanted to do something.

As I went back, every time I went, I found that my neighbors' girls were getting married.

They were getting mutilated, and here, after I graduated from here, I worked at the U.N., I went back to school to get my graduate work, the constant cry of these girls was in my face.

I had to do something.

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