Kenyan Peninah Nthenya Awarded the Marian Kennedy Fellowship in 2010
AMSTERDAM, 4 March 2010 - The Marian Kennedy Fellowship of this
year goes to Peninah Nthenya of Safe Spaces in Kenya. Safe Spaces
not only makes girls physically more fit through basketball, yoga
and dance, but also increases their mental resistance and autonomy.
Apart from sport, the organization offers information and raises
awareness around HIV/AIDS, drugs, sexual violence and other topics
that young women are confronted with in the Eastland slum of
Nairobi. As a fellow Peninah Nthenya receives a grant of €15,000
for Safe Spaces.
Kennedy Van der Laan announced this on 4 March at an event on
the occasion of the approaching International Women's Day. The
fellowship is an initiative of the law firm and aims at improving
the position of women. Each year the fellowship supports a person
or organization that endeavors to improve the position of women in
an innovative and sustainable way. The Marian Kennedy Fellowship
was established in 2008 as a tribute to Marian Kennedy. The
co-founder and name-giver of Kennedy Van der Laan has always
devoted herself to the improvement of the position of women.
Machteld Robichon, associate partner at Kennedy Van der Laan and
member of The Marian Kennedy Fellowship Committee, says the
following about Peninah: "With her achievements and the way in
which she did it, she sets a tremendous example to other girls in
the slums of Nairobi. We are very happy that we can give Peninah
the chance to go on realizing her ambitions".
About
Peninah Nthenya and Safe Spaces
Safe Spaces was founded two years ago by Peninah Nthenya, the
first woman from the slum who succeeded in graduating from a
university. Peninah managed to escape from a life in the slum
thanks to her enormous strength of will and perseverance. For
example, she would walk 32 kilometers a day to and from her
secondary school. She set her mind on obtaining a university
scholarship to fulfill that dream as well. For this purpose, she
managed to teach herself to play basketball within one month, since
students in the university squad are entitled to a scholarship.
Having completed her law studies and having worked at a law
firm, in 2008 Peninah Nthenya decided to devote herself fully to
helping young women in Eastland. The young organization Safe Spaces
will use the grant of The Marian Kennedy Fellowship to give a
number of scholarships to young girls. "What I have done, they
can do too", Peninah says.
In 2009 already over 200 girls and young women took part in
basketball trainings, yoga and dance sessions and weekly group
talks. Sport gives them self-confidence. It also makes brothers and
fathers begin to understand that women may be suitable for more
than being married off and doing household chores. Among
themselves, girls find support, understanding and trust to bring up
painful subjects, such as HIV or domestic, sexual and physical
violence. A basketball team of Safe Spaces is participating in the
competition in Nairobi. In the very first year the team won the
championship; crews of long standing were defeated by girls from
the slum.
The Marian Kennedy Fellowship
The Marian Kennedy Fellowship is a grant of €15,000 that has
been awarded twice before by Kennedy Van der Laan. In 2009,
Empowering Women in Nepal (EWN) was the fellow. This organization
provides trainings to socially isolated rural women in Nepal. It
aims to educate women as guides in the high mountains of Nepal,
which job has so far been reserved for men. After their training
these women are able to earn an income independently. In 2008 the
grant went to Wadzanai Katsande. In memory of her father, she
founded the Edward Garwe Trust in order to pull girls in Zimbabwe
out of their social isolation, to educate them and to teach them to
speak out for themselves through sport. She also involves the local
community in this process and teaches them to help the girls
instead of disowning them.
The annual grant will be awarded during the already traditional
Kennedy Van der Laan networking event around International
Women's Day (8 March).
In the past three years, The Marian Kennedy Fellowship was
supported in choosing the fellow by Women Win, a social
organization that acknowledges the power of sport to make girls and
women around the world build their self-confidence and sense of
self-worth and strength.
In order to be eligible for the prize, persons or organizations
have to fulfill a number of criteria. Projects must have social
improvement of the position of women or girls as their goal; they
must be durable in nature; they must lead to a demonstrable effect,
and be capable of implementation in various regions of the world.
You can find more information about 'The Marian Kennedy
Fellowship' and the criteria at
www.kennedyvanderlaan.nl/mariankennedyfellowship.
Publication date
:
04 March 2010
About Kennedy Van der Laan
Kennedy Van der Laan, founded in 1992, is one of the top-20 law
firms in the Netherlands. The firm defends the legal interests of
multinationals, businesses operating nationally, start-up
companies, government and semi-government bodies and NGOs. The
mission of Kennedy Van der Laan is to provide the best possible
legal services and expertise to our clients while living our
commitment to personal and social responsibility.
For
more information, please contact:
Kennedy Van der Laan/The Marian Kennedy Fellowship
Name: Mandy Jongejans
Tel: +31 (0)20 5506 891
E-mail:
mandy.jongejans@kvdl.nl