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Feminists Around the World: Christine Kandie · Stuff Mom Never Told You

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  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to stuff.
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  Speaker 1: When ever told your prediction of iHeartRadio.
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  Speaker 2: And today for our activists around the world, we are
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  Speaker 2: continuing to celebrate the disability activists around the world by
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  Speaker 2: celebrating the works of Christine Candia or sometimes Candy. I
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  Speaker 2: think she switches up to help us out, to help
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  Speaker 2: the those who may not know how to pronounce things out,
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  Speaker 2: So thank you for that. But she is a part
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  Speaker 2: of the Indoor Riights community, which is a part of
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  Speaker 2: the ancestral land surrounding Lake Bogoriea in Kenya, And like
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  Speaker 2: many of the others we have featured, Candia is an
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  Speaker 2: advocate and an activist in so many different ways. She's
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  Speaker 2: been working for the rights and protections for the indigenous community,
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  Speaker 2: the disabled community, and the women in her country and
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  Speaker 2: her Indigenous people group, as well as working for like
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  Speaker 2: against climate change. There's so many things that she's doing obviously,
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  Speaker 2: and we already know when it comes to like the
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  Speaker 2: indigenous people, they are intersectional. They are kind of the
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  Speaker 2: definition of intersectional. So this is one of those people
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  Speaker 2: that there's so much to her activism that we might
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  Speaker 2: not cover everything, but we kind of are focusing on
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  Speaker 2: her organization and some of the things that she has
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  Speaker 2: been awarded for as well as some of the things
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  Speaker 2: that needs attention today. So here's more information about her work.
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  Speaker 2: And this is a little bit from Voice dot Global.
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  Speaker 2: They say, quote Christine is a mother, an accountant, a
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  Speaker 2: peace ambassador, an indigenous disabled woman leader in the Indo
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  Speaker 2: rised Indigenous community of Kenya. Over time, she has grown
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  Speaker 2: to be a strong human rights defender, advocating for the
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  Speaker 2: rights of the indoor rized community, with a special focus
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  Speaker 2: on the rights of Indigenous women and persons with disabilities,
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  Speaker 2: both at local, traditional, regional and international levels. So she
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  Speaker 2: has been a fierce advocate for peace, people and community
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  Speaker 2: since childhood. She actually talked about her own childhood experiences
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  Speaker 2: and how the views of her community pushed her to
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  Speaker 2: where she is today. In an interview with Minority Writes Group.
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  Speaker 2: She says, quote, I remember a time, at an early
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  Speaker 2: tender age, when my father's daughters were to be married off.
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  Speaker 2: For us to be married, we had to be cut,
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  Speaker 2: and my father had cautiously asked me about my personal
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  Speaker 2: opinion on that matter. Should I go for the cut
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  Speaker 2: like my sisters? While I was responding to him. Some
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  Speaker 2: of my sisters laughed at me and said, surely, Christine,
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  Speaker 2: it is more obvious for you to stay back at
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  Speaker 2: home because nobody could marry you. For them, nobody would
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  Speaker 2: marry me since my physical disability could not attract any
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  Speaker 2: man from marriage. For me to avoid feeling ashamed and humiliated,
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  Speaker 2: the advised that I stay at home for sure. This
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  Speaker 2: prompted my father to consider taking me to live with
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  Speaker 2: relatives who had a home closer to my school. I
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  Speaker 2: ended up moving in with them, and for this reason
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  Speaker 2: I continued with my education. So as an adult, she's
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  Speaker 2: been able to navigate through activist network by speaking up
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  Speaker 2: for the rights of her Indigenous community as well as
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  Speaker 2: those who are disabled. Within the community, women are not
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  Speaker 2: held in high regard and oftentimes women are not given
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  Speaker 2: the same opportunities when it comes to education and employment
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  Speaker 2: and even more and for Candia, a disabled woman, it
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  Speaker 2: would have been more difficult had it not been for
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  Speaker 2: her father. So there's this like like silver lining and
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  Speaker 2: all of the things that she went through as a
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  Speaker 2: child that she was able to get her education as
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  Speaker 2: well as not becaut but able to move on even
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  Speaker 2: though so many people discriminated against her. So it's one
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  Speaker 2: of those things, it's like, okay, good, but all man,
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  Speaker 2: why we all can feel that right? And she's been
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  Speaker 2: working with the endo RIS Indigenous Women Empowerment Network, which
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  Speaker 2: she helped found in twenty sixteen. She has been the
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  Speaker 2: executive director and team leaders since then on. The organization
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  Speaker 2: is a women led organization that has worked to advocate
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  Speaker 2: for the rights of women and young girls and others
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  Speaker 2: with disabilities in the Indo rights community. And here's a
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  Speaker 2: more information about them and what they do from their site.
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  Speaker 2: They say quote. Through training and income generating activities, EWEN
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  Speaker 2: ewe N has facilitated women groups to engage in soapmaking
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  Speaker 2: and acro ecological activities e g. Establishments of tree nurseries
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  Speaker 2: for PWDs or people with disabilities and kitchen gardens for
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  Speaker 2: improved livelihoods. The organization advocated for access to clean water
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  Speaker 2: through promotion of treatment of river water to remove fluoride
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  Speaker 2: and negotiated for drilling of a borehole by Lake Burgoria spa.
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  Speaker 2: EWEN successfully advocated for the allocation for resources to women
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  Speaker 2: by the County government of Barringo, where the government adopted
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  Speaker 2: a sixty thirty ration and resource allocation. As a result
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  Speaker 2: of awen's efforts, sixty percent of the resources were allocated
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  Speaker 2: to the bursary, out of which six point six percent
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  Speaker 2: has been earmarked for PWDs, thirty percent for development, five
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  Speaker 2: percent administration, and five percent to issuance of PPEs during
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  Speaker 2: COVID nineteen, which we're going to talk a little more about.
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  Speaker 2: In addition, we have grated PWDs in community groups as
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  Speaker 2: so as to mainstream their issues and local development. Uh
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  Speaker 2: So there's a lot that they're working on. They're giving
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  Speaker 2: specific numbers, but they have really like hands on community
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  Speaker 2: classes for people to be able to earn livings and
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  Speaker 2: be able to live for themselves. So it's amazing. In
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  Speaker 2: side note Annie, because we know we love these types
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  Speaker 2: of things. They celebrated World b Day, which is a
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  Speaker 2: summit for the indigenous communities, which is amazing. So they
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  Speaker 2: were coming together, has some different communities come through and
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  Speaker 2: work in celebration of the work of bees. Yay, Yes, we.
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  Speaker 1: Need to do a Queen Bee episode like the actual queen.
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  Speaker 2: You know, we need to. We need to have our
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  Speaker 2: entomologists back.
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  Speaker 1: On immigrats entomologists.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, but yes, we love bees. I just thought that
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  Speaker 2: was a que side note. So Candia has been a
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  Speaker 2: force speaking around the world about the need for more
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  Speaker 2: advocacy work for disabled and indigenous communities, and as we
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  Speaker 2: talked about earlier, they've been doing some work during COVID
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  Speaker 2: nineteen and with that the spread of COVID nineteen, the
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  Speaker 2: communities face new challenges that they had to confront and
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  Speaker 2: in the same interview she had with Minority Rights Group,
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  Speaker 2: she talked about some of those issues because it hit
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  Speaker 2: them pretty hard, she says. Persons living with disabilities within
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  Speaker 2: the Indo rights community and Kenya are facing several challenges
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  Speaker 2: which have minimally, if at all, been addressed by the authorities.
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  Speaker 2: The public awareness measures to prevent the spread of COVID
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  Speaker 2: nineteen have been less considerate to the needs of PWDs
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  Speaker 2: in my community along with other Indigenous and minority communities
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  Speaker 2: of Kenya's Beringo County. The aspects of social distancing is
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  Speaker 2: unfavorable to persons who need close support for their daily lives,
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  Speaker 2: such as the blind and those who require wheelchair support.
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  Speaker 2: Access to healthcare services for the PWDs has also been
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  Speaker 2: largely affected as a result of most health facilities now
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  Speaker 2: focusing on preparedness for COVID nineteen. Access to food and
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  Speaker 2: various social needs are also paralyzed since Marcus and any
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  Speaker 2: forms of social gathering have been banned as a way
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  Speaker 2: of combating the spread of coronavirus. So she went in
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  Speaker 2: on how they have been neglected, how they've really been
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  Speaker 2: affected and obviously this impact is even bigger because she
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  Speaker 2: speaks about how it has affected their environmental area as
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  Speaker 2: well as the farm life. They have lost a lot
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  Speaker 2: just because they don't have access to help. They don't
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  Speaker 2: have access to being able to go out and do
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  Speaker 2: things freely and also again support when they need it.
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  Speaker 2: She implored the government and leaders to acknowledge the effects
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  Speaker 2: and to put into action better ways in protecting and
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  Speaker 2: helping the already vulnerable communities. She continues by challenging them
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  Speaker 2: with this. She says the national and county government as
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  Speaker 2: well as other well wishers should support pwd's by providing
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  Speaker 2: them with masks and food. This would ensure that they
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  Speaker 2: do not have to move aroud around in order to
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  Speaker 2: access basic needs. This will allow them to access medical
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  Speaker 2: attention to sustain their livelihood without being exposed to the
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  Speaker 2: risk of contracted COVID nineteen. In the situation of a
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  Speaker 2: person with a disability diagnosed with COVID nineteen, they should
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  Speaker 2: also be offered a special quarantine that also accommodates their
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  Speaker 2: underlying conditions. She goes on and says, the health and
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  Speaker 2: human rights of Indigenous people living with disabilities can no
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  Speaker 2: longer go ignored. The challenges we face, including isolation from
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  Speaker 2: the development agenda, existed long before COVID nineteen entered our lives. However,
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  Speaker 2: this virus is making the discrimination we face daily even clearer.
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  Speaker 2: It is time to treat us as equals and with
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  Speaker 2: the respect we deserve, which is if we should be
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  Speaker 2: common knowledge. Like I kind of scoff because I'm like, yes,
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  Speaker 2: how is this not an automatic? And she definitely laid
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  Speaker 2: that out for the community, And I think she got
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  Speaker 2: little assistance, but not a lot. Let's be honest, just
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  Speaker 2: like any other advocacy work when we see it, they
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  Speaker 2: did it because it did not exist, and that's what
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  Speaker 2: she continued to do. She did it. She filled that
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  Speaker 2: space and trying to protect her community, especially through her organization,
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  Speaker 2: and a simple ass like getting masks should not have
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  Speaker 2: to be a plea right. But also with that, you know,
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  Speaker 2: she talked about it a little bit of how this
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  Speaker 2: is even more but already they were losing lands, they
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  Speaker 2: were being evicted from their home. They are being pushed
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  Speaker 2: out by companies trying to harm the lands by taking
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  Speaker 2: from the resources. So so much, they're doing so much.
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  Speaker 2: And with that, she did an interview with Atsmuth's World
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  Speaker 2: Foundation podcast Connecting the Dots, and she said this about
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  Speaker 2: her organization and her work. In our work as an organization,
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  Speaker 2: we try to look back. When we look back, we
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  Speaker 2: identify those groups that are struggling to catch up with
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  Speaker 2: the rest of the Indigenous movement. So when I look back,
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  Speaker 2: I see an Indigenous person. When I look back, I
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  Speaker 2: see a woman, I see a girl child who is
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  Speaker 2: unable to go to school. This is exactly what we do.
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  Speaker 2: We help them catch up with the rest the Indigenous
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  Speaker 2: movement and Indigenous practices. Is not about me, It's about us.
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  Speaker 2: And when I say us, everyone is on board. So
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  Speaker 2: she is truly out there speaking and really bringing attention
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  Speaker 2: to her work, to her community, to those with disabilities
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  Speaker 2: and how they are neglected, especially those in indigenous communities.
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  Speaker 2: So we already know, we already know how they are
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  Speaker 2: so impacted and often left out when there are crisis
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  Speaker 2: involved in things like COVID nineteen. And yeah, she has
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  Speaker 2: been awarded for her hard work with or is like
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  Speaker 2: being named the twenty eighteen Kenyan Human Rights Offender. In
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  Speaker 2: twenty twenty one, she also also given the National Gender
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  Speaker 2: Inequality Commission Award, So she's she's definitely being recognized. But
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  Speaker 2: of course she's pushing and probably could care less about baccalage.
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  Speaker 2: She wants attention and she wants change, and we're here.
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  Speaker 1: For that, always, always, always, and as always, listeners, please
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