Letter from Paula

Dear Friends,

My name is Paula and I am 16 years old. I was born in the far outskirts of Kisumu city, Nyanza province in Kenya.

I have only one sibling. I have lived in various parts of Kenya but majorly in the western side of Kenya, in the Luo community.

I am currently in my third year of high school having one year left to my national examination to enter the university.

I currently study in The Kenya High School, Nairobi. I would like to study architecture at the Oxford Brookes University in UK.

Over the years, I have come to learn a lot of things that I had not heard of ever.

I derive a lot of fulfillment in writing rather than speaking and hence I know I will change the world one day soon with my creative skills.

From all that I have gotten to learn from leadership academies in an organization called Akili Dada, I identify as a modern day feminist. I believe in the equality of all genders. I therefore think that we should have more women presidents.

First of all, I think that the bigger percentage of our country and the world in general is still patriarchal, why?

Because the number of women in leadership positions in the world today is less than 5 per cent.

We, as the population need a change in the systems.

Variety is the flavor of life and I believe that we need to experience a new leadership system pioneered by women. Women need to portray and showcase their leadership skills to the world because men have been dominant on this sector for centuries. An effective change would be really good.

Secondly, more women should be presidents in order to empower the girl child.

I think more women presidents would encourage young girls like me to participate actively in leadership.

In the past years there have been stereotypes that women cannot take up important positions in the society thus having more women presidents would change such stereotypes and would empower young girls. More women presidents would definitely lead to gender equality.

Finally, women are regarded as motherly and caring; indeed they are.

Women have the capability of changing the world as they do not act according to their selfish desires but rather on logic and care for humanity.

Women too will improve the state of the world because for so long they have not been in power and they have all experienced the problems we have been experiencing thus I believe they will change the world. It was a pleasure sharing my thoughts. Goodbye!

— Paula