Brooke Holland, 26, left the comfort of her Malibu life in February for a backpacking vacation in Kenya. Her brother, Thomas, 24, travelled from Israel and met her there.
They began their trip in a remote part of northern Kenya working with a re-forestation project, planting trees. Their bus broke down during the next leg of their trip. As they stood on the side of the road, they started talking with Peter Lauxurai, a community advocate helping people with endemic HIV and AIDS and quietly trying to convince local people that female genital mutilation (FGM) is a “rite of passage” that should be stopped.
FGM is illegal in Kenya, but 90 percent of the girls in Samburu County still have it done to them. That chance meeting changed Brooke Holland’s life and led to her organizing a fundraiser at Malibu Playhouse selling beadwork made by women of the Baawa tribe and establishing the Deep Samburu Project to help 22 women who live in extreme poverty because they either have HIV, AIDS or are widowed because of it. All of the women have been “cut.”
“They are some of the most incredibly bright women I have ever met and are super talented,” Holland said. “I’m trying to help empower them with a viable economy so they can make their own decisions.”
By buying some of their jewelry, Holland enabled the women to feed their families that night. Some hadn’t eaten for three days.
Holland then met an Australian photographer, Naomi Fletcher, while Fletcher was building a boat on the coast and told her about the Kenyan women she was trying to help. Fletcher was so inspired, she journeyed 20 hours by bus with Holland to get to Samburu to meet them for herself. The two Western women have been working together since to help the village.
Holland came back to Malibu in May and has been working tirelessly to raise money for the women of Samburu. Fletcher never left.
So far, they have fenced seven farms that will be shared by 11 women, dealt with a breakout of typhoid and pneumonia, had four trips to the hospital, paid for five girls’ education, danced, sang, drank a lot of chai and saved some lives. “As a white female, it’s a delicate path to question practices that go on within a tribe. FGM is a relatively new practice in Kenya, just 150 years old,” Holland said.
Holland just heard from Fletcher that the women of the Deep Samburu Project have pledged — without being asked — not to cut their daughters. They are going to send their daughters to school and not marry them off, as has been the custom.
There are now 30 women involved with the project — the poorest in the community. This is direct and immediate change happening right now thanks to Holland, a massage therapist from Malibu.
Holland is going back to the Samburu women in December and taking a mobile clinic with her, including an OB/GYN, an acupuncturist and a homeopath to treat AIDS, FGM injuries and help with typhoid prevention.
Next, Holland will create a website for the women to sell their work.
“We have spent many hours with the women, both as a group and one-on-one, discussing their individual needs and priorities, identifying their greatest struggles and working out the most effective ways of addressing them. They have each chosen which economic avenue is most suitable and viable for their particular situation and skill set,” Holland said.
The fundraiser at the Malibu Playhouse was a big success.
“It was amazing!” Holland said. “So many people came. We sold almost three-quarters of the jewelry and raised $3,500, with more donations pledged. We moved the whole space outdoors. Everyone was surrounded by trees with views of the mountains and the ocean. It was beautiful.”
This extraordinary and inspiring Malibu woman is on a mission to improve the lives of these women and girls in Kenya by providing ongoing support.
For more information and to donate: gofundme.com/womenofdeepsamburu
