Nasinkoi's Story

She was 13 years old when she joined preschool.

Some evenings I come back home and simply thank God for the Women's Resilience Circle.

There are days when I don't even have the words to explain what it feels like to sit with these women. I almost wish everyone could be in the room with us, because no story I tell will ever fully capture those moments.

Since last year, I have sat one-on-one with more than thirteen women. We've cried together. We've sat in silence when there were no words. We've prayed. We've celebrated small steps that, to someone else, might not seem like much.

But today, I can't stop thinking about Nasinkoi.

Nasinkoi joined preschool school when she was 13 years old. Thirteen.

She wasn't late because she didn't want an education. She was late because, in her family, educating a girl was never seen as a priority. She stayed home caring for her younger siblings and carrying responsibilities that no child should have to carry. While other children were in classrooms, she was becoming a second mother.

By the time she was 13, there were already plans for her to be married. If her grandmother had not stepped in and taken her in, Nasinkoi believes her life would have been very different. She says she could easily have been married by then and perhaps raising seven children today.

Instead, at 13 years old, she walked into a preschool classroom.

At 13, most children have been in school for years. Nasinkoi was sitting in a classroom with children who were just beginning their education.

Can you imagine what that must have felt like? Being older than everyone else. Knowing people would laugh. Knowing you didn't belong by age.

She did not give up.

She completed elementary school, then high school, and eventually earned a university degree two years ago.

Today, during our counseling session, I wasn't just listening to another story. I was sitting across from a woman who had already chosen courage long before she ever walked into the Women's Resilience Circle.

Today she continues to choose herself.

Through counseling, she's becoming more self-aware and making healthier decisions for her life. She's also building her beadwork business while raising her daughter.

I don't know if I'll ever stop being amazed by women like Nasinkoi, because sometimes Resilience looks like a 13-year-old girl walking into a kindergarten classroom, knowing everyone will stare, and deciding that beginning late is still better than never beginning at all.