Sometimes words fall short to describe an experience. Summer 2023, three trainers from The Speech Republic traveled to the Nice Place Foundation nestled in the tiny town of Loitokitok, in the heart of Maasai country. Situated on the border between Kenya and Tanzania, the town overlooks Mount Kilimanjaro in all her majestic beauty.
Our goal? To train the next cohort of future female leaders from the Maasai community.
Our client? Nice Nailantei Leng’ete, founder of Nice Place Foundation and International Postcode Lottery Ambassador in collaboration with the Friedrich Neumann Foundation.
NICE NAILANTEI LENG’ETE
Nice Nailantei Leng’ete is the founder of Nice Place Foundation, award-winning activist and International Postcode Lottery Ambassador. Named among TIME MAGAZINE 100 most influential leaders, Nice aims at eradicating the practice of Female Genitale Mutilation as a rite of passage among the Maasai community. Her Nice Place Foundation is not only a shelter for young women fleeing the cut, but also a place of education and activism. Her vision is to empower young Maasai girls to fight for an alternative rite of passage and women’s rights in general.
Over 20.000 girls escaped the cut with the help of Nice Place
Nice’s story is one of persistence, hope and change, as she is well respected among both male and female members of the Maasai community, and so far has helped over 20.000 girls to escape FGM.
SPEAK, ESPECIALLY WHEN NOT SPOKEN TO
The Speech Republic team worked together with a cohort of Nice Place Foundation alumni, young women who fought hard to get the opportunity to finish highschool and were now ready to embark on their next adventure. Future Maasai lawyers, farmers, teachers, doctors. Young women with hopes and dreams, living in a context in which the price for these dreams can be social exclusion or worse.
The inherent strength of these young women is touching and inspiring.
It takes courage to find your voice. And then to use it.
These young women reaffirmed just how powerful a voice can be when it is used to not only speak up for oneself, but for an entire community. When it is used to challenge the status quo for the greater good. Not because they were told to, but because they found the courage to do so and in their own way – and this in a community where they are literally expected to only speak, when spoken to.
At The Speech Republic, we celebrate those who dare to speak up to change the world. Something that is more easily said than done. These young women showed us once more the courage it takes to do so. The courage to find your voice. And then to use it.
Interested in supporting Nice Place Foundation? Please take a look at www.niceplacefoundation.org
4 days. 7 changemakers. Dozens of inspiring stories… with many more to come.
In February, The Speech Republic team flew to South Africa to facilitate a ‘Storytelling for Social Change’ training course in the heart of the country’s city of gold, Johannesburg. In partnership with the Friedrich Neumann Foundation Africa, the training focused on empowering and equipping a passionate and diverse group of civil society changemakers working across human rights defense, whistleblowing, grassroots democracy and youth development, with the tools they needed to share more impactful narratives in the spaces, and with the audiences that mattered to them.
The 4-day immersive training put each participant through their paces, challenging them on all levels of their own personal communication and storytelling development.
If you see something, say something
Looking at South Africa from a historic perspective, it is clear that stories have had and continue to have the potential to create positive change, across communities and at all levels of civil society, as they can influence policy and aid in critical decision making.
As purpose-driven organizations working the civic space in South Africa these professionals showed that they were all natural storytellers and that despite working in (politically) sensitive spaces, with a lot of external scrutiny at times, that they would continue to fight on behalf of their audience – the country, and her citizens.
At the Speech Republic we actively support individuals and organizations who dedicate their time, efforts and stories to making the world a better place.
If you’d like to know more about the civil society organizations we worked with in South Africa, you can find them here:
The Helen Suzman Foundation: https://hsf.org.za/
The Third Republic: https://t3r.org.za/
PPLAAF: https://www.pplaaf.org/
The SA Schools Debating Board: https://sadebating.org/