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Women are key to climate action in Kenya, says Maasai climate advocate, Miss Climate Kenya, and the world’s first Miss Climate, Dorcas Naishorua. Sharing how climate change drives poverty and therefore reinforces child marriage and FGM, Dorcas shares lessons from people already deeply affected by climate change, and ultimately, why empowering women empowers entire communities. Recorded live at TED Countdown in Nairobi with Climate Curious co-host Ben Hurst.
Related episodes:
How the climate crisis drives child marriage, with Dr. Faith Mwangi Powell
Why gender equality is the missing piece of the climate puzzle, with Dr. Amiera Sawas
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Created by TEDxLondon
Executive produced by Josie Colter
Produced by Ben Beheshty
Curated by Deesha Chandra
Hosted by Maryam Pasha and Ben Hurst
Communications by Tara Cooper and Issey Gladston
00:00 Introduction
01:06 Living with wildlife: Maasai Tribe’s conservation efforts
02:43 Combating cultural malpractices: FGM and child marriage
03:32 Music and advocacy: raising awareness through songs
05:06 Isilan Community Based Organisation
05:59 The role of women in climate change
08:05 Conclusion
[00:00:00] Introduction
[00:00:00] Ben Hurst: Welcome to Climate Quickies, bite-sized nuggets of Climate goodness.
[00:00:05] Ben Hurst: From our TEDxLondon experts in under 10 minutes In this week’s climate, curious, we are looking at how empowering women in Kenya is a climate solution with Maasai women and the world’s first Miss Climate. Dorcas Naishorua. Dorcas shares stories of living as part of the Maasai tribe and explains how climate change can end up reinforcing practices like child marriage and FGM and how she’s helping her community through the work of is land community based organization on how women are building climate resilience in Kenya.
[00:00:39] Ben Hurst: Here’s Dorcas. Stay curious.
[00:00:44] Dorcas Naishorua: I would [00:00:45] say Nairobi life has really enlightened me in a big way. And I really want to bring the ne I can, I might not be able to bring them to Nairobi, but I can take what I have learned here back at home. Yeah. So that has been like my focus. I’m like, okay, I might not make myself proud, [00:01:00] but I have a whole group of women and girls waiting for me at home looking up to me, and I have to make them proud.
[00:01:06] Living with wildlife: Maasai Tribe’s conservation efforts
[00:01:06] Dorcas Naishorua: I knew, uh, I really wanted to do conservation, but just sitting back and realizing that all my life I’ve been on conservation, we have this [00:01:15] fully coexisted with wildlife for decades and uh, I know how important it is to create a space that is really. Convenient for the wildlife and for us. So I come from [00:01:30] Kajiado County, uh, we border at the Nairobi National Park.
[00:01:33] Dorcas Naishorua: One surprising factor is last week on Monday, a lioness was, uh, taken back to the Nairobi National Park from our village. So the lions has been in our village [00:01:45] for more than five months. It has Wow. Eight in our goats. And it’s unfortunate that it had CS when in, uh, I mean in Kajiado County. So then, uh, the learners was taken back to the National Park, but now, until now we have three cabs on [00:02:00] the loose.
[00:02:00] Dorcas Naishorua: So that really explains how much the Maasai people. Really coexist with wildlife. If we didn’t have that passion in us, we could have killed them. I mean, we’re so good in doing that, but just living in a community that embraces them and tells, you know what? There’s something called a giraffe. There’s something [00:02:15] called a zebra.
[00:02:15] Dorcas Naishorua: There’s something called a wild based and bah, you should take care of this and this and that, and you should just make sure that. You do not also get to inconvenience them in how they live and how, basically how they take the whole approach of life. So I would say conservation, clicking in my head that in [00:02:30] my mind that this is what I’m doing.
[00:02:31] Dorcas Naishorua: Actually, this is what is called conservation started on a wonder award. But deep down I did things that I didn’t know I was doing conservation on the side.
[00:02:43] Combating cultural malpractices: FGM and child marriage
[00:02:43] Dorcas Naishorua: So with lsilan, I work closely with [00:02:45] survivors of female genital mutilation, that is FGM, early marriage and gender-based violence. So if you connect all these things, it levels down to climate change for any cultural malpractice to happen in our community. Climate change propels it in one way or [00:03:00] another, either drought or, I mean, there’s just something wrong with how these people are surviving.
[00:03:06] Dorcas Naishorua: So with the Isilan, we’re creating possible solutions in, uh, very small ways. One, I would say, um, [00:03:15] preaching it. Telling people that this is not right. We have gone through it and it had, it adds no value to us as a woman or to your husband, or it just deducts much from a woman and poses them to so much risks like giving [00:03:30] birth complications.
[00:03:32] Music and advocacy: raising awareness through songs
[00:03:32] Dorcas Naishorua: So with IS land, we have done songs we’ve done. Five songs recorded and we final, we recently finalized one with Red Fourth chorus called Boy and Aaliyah. So basically this is a young boy [00:03:45] who’s crying, saying, um, my sister has been missing for some time and I really hope you guys have not given a out for marriage.
[00:03:53] Dorcas Naishorua: So through that kind of music, it’s more of trying to put it in, putting into people’s minds that. [00:04:00] Even young, young children have a voice and they have emotions and they really know what really happened in as much as they don’t talk about it. So with the other songs we have recorded but not yet produced their videos because of financial constraints here and there, but basically [00:04:15] talks about education need to end FGM, environmental conservation, the power of your voice, and also embracing our culture and traditions.
[00:04:29] Dorcas Naishorua: [00:04:30] I’ve been dressing in Maasai outfits since day one of the conference and uh, it really felt good, especially co-hosting the first session and just glamming in my whole element. ’cause I was like, okay, I’m just carrying the whole crown of my community [00:04:45] and all the guests that I represent out here. So we do bid work and through this bid work we sell them.
[00:04:50] Dorcas Naishorua: These species, we sell them by selling them. We empower them. We give them some amount of, um, income from it. They’re able to buy sanitary towels for their girls. They’re able to [00:05:00] buy a packet of LA and vegetables and things like that, and small developments in their homes in the smaller way.
[00:05:06] Isilan Community Based Organisation
[00:05:06] Dorcas Naishorua: So Isilan is a community-based organization that is based in Caiado County.
[00:05:11] Dorcas Naishorua: We started it as a self-help group. In [00:05:15] 2019. So now we are celebrating five years since we started our work. And um, Isilan is the, uh, we are in Silan and we are also champion on environmental conservation. Last year we did a hundred thousand three seedlings. So we [00:05:30] did, uh, do seedbed. And then we transplanted them to porting bug.
[00:05:35] Dorcas Naishorua: We donated some to the community, to schools, to Gaza Forest here in Kenya, just to also spread the message that we are the ones [00:05:45] to be on the revolution to the change that we want to see. Basically, leading by example. I have gone through this. It doesn’t have, it doesn’t, you know, you don’t have to go through it so you can understand.
[00:05:56] Dorcas Naishorua: Uh, what we’re talking about, like leading by example.
[00:05:59] The role of women in climate change
[00:05:59] Dorcas Naishorua: Women stay at home most of the time. Mm-hmm. I would count times where I have stayed at home with my father since I was born. Right, right. Like a whole day. I’m just here with my father. We’ll be less than, we’ll be less than two, right. Since birth. But for my mom, she has been there.
[00:06:17] Dorcas Naishorua: Since my small age and for us, women are not allowed to work, by the way. Yes. So you stay, your work is to stay at home. You raise the kids and talk to them and just making sure that they have discipline. ’cause if they [00:06:30] go um, and just get to being disciplined, then it’s your fault as a mother. But if they’re doing really well and everything is working out for them, they’re doing a good job.
[00:06:37] Dorcas Naishorua: And it’s because of their father. Yeah. I truly believe that women are. Leading the change? Yeah. In terms [00:06:45] of also being in the family, because I’ll advise you, I’ll tell you, um, after taking water, maybe with a glass, you need to rinse it in the tap and put it back in the rank. Yeah. If I’m tell if you, if you’re maybe enjoying a snack at home, I have to tell you No, no, no, no.
[00:06:59] Dorcas Naishorua: That piece of [00:07:00] paper you have to put in the bin and which kind of bin? Either for plastics, either for organic matter and things like that. So a woman leads change. Yeah. Getting to also make their home beautiful. Most of the time you find that a woman decides on [00:07:15] which kind of flower she wants to plant in her garden, or if she wants to do vegetables, she decides which vegetables.
[00:07:21] Dorcas Naishorua: So basically, the role of women really stands out and, um. Women are powerful and women have so much patience. You guys [00:07:30] tend to be very impatient with so many things, but just having a woman in a home makes it warm, makes it feel at home, makes it just a lovely space being there. So I believe that women.
[00:07:42] Dorcas Naishorua: Leading climate change is important, [00:07:45] and I always say I wish we could always prioritize on empowering women more because when our woman is empowered, my son will be empowered, my daughter will be empowered. I will also work hard and be a better person, and my husband will feel good and he’ll equally. Be [00:08:00] empowered to keep pushing and providing for our family.
[00:08:02] Dorcas Naishorua: So that is my take on that.
[00:08:05] Conclusion
[00:08:05] Ben Hurst: Thanks for listening to this quickie.
[00:08:07] Maryam Pasha: This episode was created by our superstar podcast team at TEDxLondon. Until next time,
[00:08:13] Ben Hurst: stay [00:08:15] curious.
