Always has today launched the “Stand Up” initiative in Kenya under the hashtag #AlwaysStandUpKe. The initiative aims at encouraging the Kenyan girl child to stand up for her dreams and aspirations. Kenya’s first marine pilot Elizabeth Marami together with the Kenya women’s basketball captain Silalei Owuor will work together with the Always brand to share their stories on how they stood up to make their dreams come true and encourage Kenyan girls to do the same.
According to the Always Brand Manager Evanson Mwaniki, the initiative hopes to empower girls to have the confidence to pursue their aspirations regardless of the different obstacles that they may face in order to reach them. He continued to state that 90% of Kenyan girls feel pressured to hide their beliefs, be less feminine and take fewer risks. The initiative aims to help refocus efforts on ensuring girls stand up for what they want and set highly rewarding goals.
Ms. Marami one of the brand ambassadors can’t wait to tackle the issue of confidence among girls in a bid to show them that they too can stand up and become what they have always dreamt of. She is extremely proud of her mother who stood up for her which is why she ended up pursuing her dreams and exceling even though there are only a few women in her profession. According to Ms Silale, no girl should feel that she can’t stand up and do something because of her gender. Be it playing basketball or being good at people skills, girls should have the confidence and self-belief to do anything and everything they want. She continued to say that she understands why girls wouldn’t feel comfortable doing a particular activity that society ascribes as typically male.
Back in 2014, Always started the global #LikeAGirl campaign highlighting how the phrase to do something “Like A Girl” had become a negative one. Earlier this year the next phase of this campaign began globally with the creation of the Always Global Confidence Teaching Curriculum, a program that will benefit millions of girls around the world. The curriculum builds Always 30 year heritage in puberty education and will reach up to 20 million girls in 65 counties per year. Additionally, TED, the non-profit devoted to spreading ideas has committed to support Always in teaching confidence to young girls.
Watch out for inspiring stories of Marami and Silalei here.