The Dark Reality of Traditional Norms with Rael Lomoti

Rael Lomoti grew up in the Turkana region of northwest Kenya, where girls as young as 12 are given away in marriage, football is only for boys and education is considered a luxury that communities cannot afford.  Her father moved the family to Nairobi so his children could go to school. Her mother died working in a flower plantation, exposed to pesticides with no worker safety protections. A German nun spotted Rael playing football in the street and took her whole family in. She grew up, studied social work and community development, played in Kenya's Women's Premier League, and was offered a professional contract to play abroad. She turned it down. She went home to Turkana instead and started the first ever all girls football club. That was six years ago. Today she runs 18 clubs across Turkana and has reached over 4000 girls through the Desert Roses project, using football as the entry point for conversations about education, early marriage, climate change and the kind of life that is possible beyond the world these girls were born into. Timestamps: 00:00 - Introduction & Who Is Rael Lomoti 00:41 - Using Football to Change Tradition in Turkana 01:24 - Girls Married at 12 and Why She Decided to Fight It 02:35 - Moving From Turkana to Nairobi at Age 4 04:48 - Her Father's Decision to Stay in the City & the Importance of Education 07:17 - Climate Change in Turkana & the Need to Stop Moving 07:49 - How a German Nun Changed Everything 10:08 - Losing Her Mother to Pesticide Exposure in a Flower Plantation 12:03 - Her Father's Promise to Keep the Family Together 13:13 - Playing Football With the Boys & Being Spotted 15:22 - What Sister Louise Told Her to Do With Her Education 17:35 - Playing in Kenya's Women's Premier League as a Defensive Midfielder 18:30 - Being Offered a Professional Contract  21:21 - Choosing Her Community Over Her Career 22:36 - Was It an Easy Decision 23:08 - Going Back to Turkana and Starting From Scratch 25:26 - Walking Door to Door With a Ball and Nobody Showing Up 27:23 - Three Years of Civic Engagement to Convince Parents 29:14 - Did She Ever Think About Quitting 30:30 - 18 Clubs and 4000 Girls Reached Through Desert Roses 32:46 - Football Coach, Social Worker, Mentor and Sex Education Teacher 34:09 - Her Daughter Who Plays Football 37:01 - First Time in the Netherlands and Telling Her Daughter About Snow and Trains 39:14 - Watching Football at Feyenoord and What Women's Football Looks Like Here 40:24 - What the Netherlands Has That Turkana Does Not & Why People Should Be Grateful 41:34 - How to Follow Desert Roses and Support the Work This episode was sponsored by bunq, the European neobank offering a special promotional 2.51% fixed annual interest rate on a six-month term deposit through June 14, 2026. Full terms and conditions apply, and the offer is valid for deposit amounts between 1,000 and 10,000 euros. Follow Rael Lomoti: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008336344164 Follow Dam Yankee:  https://www.instagram.com/damyankeepodcast   Website:  https://damyankeepodcast.nltimes.nl/ Connect with me:   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacharynewmark   This podcast is produced and recorded by 301 Studios in Amsterdam. The interview was organized with the assistance of Isabelle Vermeij  at the KIT Live theater at KIT in Amsterdam.