I can't tell you for sure (without going through a whole lot of old posts to trace back the beginning of when she first got in touch with me -- and time is short at this time, so I'll just have to do that on a future date) just when I first began hearing from Rose Kamunge over at Facebook, but it has been a few months.
All I know is that I feel very blessed and honored to be one of the ones she chose to help her with a very important project: empowering women and girls in her part of the world (Arusha, Tanzania on the continent of Africa).
Thanks, in advance, for going here to read my introduction to her mission! Contained within, you will also find other links that will tell you more.
One of the most current things I've written is called
The Things We Take For Granted...
and it isn't, by any stretch of the imagination, a comfortable piece to read -- but, even so, it needs to be read!!! Rest assured that I could have actually made the reading experience even less comfortable by being even MORE graphic in my description and, perhaps, sharing some photos. Instead, I've decided to leave a lot of it up to your imaginations. Rose has the photos for anyone who might want to see them.
Rose has a lot of photos that tell stories -- and most of her photo collection is of a positive nature showing smiling women and girls who have received the help they need to keep from becoming part of the other photos.
It's HIGH time to wake up and smell the coffee -- to realize that there are still women and girls in the world who actually believe that it's normal (like part of a right-of-passage) to have the normal feelings surgically removed from their sex organs so that they could care less about who ends up marrying them.
Here in my country (as well as in so many other countries), mutual love and attraction are very important parts of marriage. Men who purchase women for marriage in Rose's neck of the woods are thought of as husbands, even though what they put their wives through is right there with what pimps put women through here (only most pimps don't go around taking knives to the genitals of their stables of prostitutes -- if for no other reason than not wanting to have the danger of additional time in the slammer as a very real option).
Having said this, I'm now going to share with you a note from Rose and the latest progress report when it comes to getting Mimutie out there to the people (Hopefully, you, the reader, will be one of them!) who are willing to help in any way that they can...
Rose's Note To Me:
Dear Ainsley I acknowledge and appreciate the wonderful work that you are doing to fund-raise for our women empowerment program here in Tanzania.Indeed we need support from within and outside our country to move the strategy to help our women come out of the social and cultural enslavement which deprives them of their femininity through female genital mutilation, that God has granted them- reality of being a woman and experiencing the natural wonderful emotional life that a woman deserves---I am committed to start a long journey of empowering women to overcome all this whatever it takes and however long it takes, the flame of my vision will always remain active and alive until the objective of total emancipation of the maasai women is achieved.God bless for all the wonderful efforts you are making to make my dreams come true. Rose!
The latest progress report:
FOUNDATION STEPS FOR THE ORGANIZATIONAL DEVLOPMENT OF MIMUTIE
IS BASED ON THE FOLLOWING STRATEGY:
1:0
Establishing
a small office in Arusha for easy communication and networking . This is very
basic for getting the organization off the ground and ensuring linkages and
networking with likeminded organizations, individuals and government
institutions.
2:0 Fundraising for the initial foundation investments for
establishing office.
3:0
Development
of a website where the organization can upload relevant information and data on
the newly founded MIMUTIE WOMEN ORGANIZATION.
4:0
Lean staff of
three persons(coordinator , program officer and secretary).
5:0
Development
of strategic plan for three years timeline.
6:0 Organizational capacity development strategy for the
staff to enable them become adequate to the tasks in their respective job
descriptions.
7:0 Networking with local and
international organizations and individuals who can support the efforts of the
organization to implement its activities.
8:0 development of operational strategy
based on the Strategic Plan.
9:0 Operationalization of the Strategic
plan using the developed operational strategy
10:0 Fundraising as a continuing activity
as the organization takes off the ground.
