» The Gift of an Unwritten Future | The Advocacy Project

Kate Cummings (Vital Voices in Kenya): Kate was born in the North Carolina mountains, and received her BFA in photography at Sewanee (The University of the South) in 2004. Kate co-founded a meditation group at the Hampshire County Jail in North Carolina where she led meditation sessions with inmates each week. Upon graduation, Kate was awarded the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. This allowed her to spend a year photographing in India, Vietnam, Thailand, New Zealand, and France. During this year, she photographed Zen Master and international peacemaker Thich Nhat Hanh's first return to Vietnam since his exile 39 years before. Her images were published internationally. She returned to Vietnam in 2007 with Nhat Hanh and his International Peace Delegation to photograph healing ceremonies. Kate moved to western Massachusetts and began teaching photography to at-risk girls. At the time of her fellowship, Kate was studying for her master’s degree at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Boston. After her fellowship, Kate wrote: “Best experience? This is an impossible question! I think, that by spending so much time with Kenyans in their homes and families and in the community setting… I gained a deep understanding of their successes and their significant challenges...I look at myself now as having the potential to be as strong and caring as the amazing women I met in Kenya.”

05 Sep

In this interview, Kakenya Ntaiya talks about the freedom she has found in education. Tracing her path back to childhood, Kakenya remembers her family hardships and the constricting nature of traditional Maasai values on her future. But Kakenya was not going to accept her family’s selection of a husband-to-be for her at age five; and she was certainly not going to let generations of ritual and multiple father-figures with a limited perception of her potential stand in the way of her own dream. Instead, Kakenya – with the support of her mother – rallied together the very community that resented her independence and convinced them to send her to college in the US. Now, less than a year away from finishing her PhD in international education, Kakenya is still dreaming – but this time, for her entire village.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFSqhkxcb3c

Interview by: Kate Cummings. Location: Enoosaen, Kenya. Partner: Vital Voices, 2009.

Posted By Kate Cummings

Posted Sep 5th, 2009

Brooke Marchewka
February 8, 2010

Hello Ms. Cummings,

My name is Brooke Marchewka and I am a student at Masconomet Regional High
School in Boxford, Massachusetts. I have started a club at my school
which is working toward donating 100 XO laptops from the non-profit
organization One Laptop Per Child to students in Africa. I have recently
come into contact with Kakenya through a mutual contact from Kenya. Our
club (called the Global Initiative Volunteers Club) is now looking toward
donating the laptops to the girls at Kakenya’s Center for Excellence. We
hope to deliver the laptops to Kenya on a two-week long trip in February
2011.

I spoke on the phone with Kakenya and she suggested I contact you, as you
visited her school and you are from the U.S. I would love to speak with
you concerning your experience at the school. One of the largest hurdles
our club faces is having this trip to Kakenya’s Center for Excellence
approved by the School Committee. I would like to learn more about the
school and convince the committee that this is not a dangerous place to
visit.

Kakenya sent me a link to your blog for the Advocacy Project and I read
your profile about your accomplishments in photography as well as helping
others. I think what you are doing is wonderful. I hope to have the
opportunity to speak with you.

Sincerely,
Brooke Marchewka
President of the Global Initiative Volunteers (GIV) Club

The Gift of an Unwritten Future

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