Hi all,

This September, myself and Nick Glaysher will be walking a collective 250 miles of the South West Coast Path (aka the Salt Path), to raise funds for The Brilliant Feminine, a grassroots organisation in northern Kenya tackling gender-based violence and period poverty through self-defence training and community education.

I’m aiming to raise £3,000 to help kickstart the next phase of The Brilliant Feminine’s work, including establishing a menstrual hygiene centre which will also serve as a safe hub for rights-based education and self-defence workshops. Any donations would mean a great deal, even if it’s just the price of a pint or a cup of coffee!

The Brilliant Feminine operates in Samburu County, where growing up as a girl and living as a woman comes with some of the highest risks of violence and harmful practices in Kenya. Access to menstrual products and education is extremely limited, and period poverty continues to keep many girls out of school. Over 86% of women and girls in the region have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM), and rates of child marriage, intimate partner violence, and femicide remain alarmingly high.

With the recent devastating cuts to the global development sector, violence against women and girls is expected to surge as essential support systems have been dismantled almost overnight. This is especially evident in Kenya, which had already recorded a 79% increase in femicide cases in 2024 compared to 2023, the highest annual toll on record, even before the cuts took effect. With all the shifts taking place across the humanitarian and development sector, it is grassroots and frontline organisations that are under the most pressure, in ways few of us, myself included, could ever fully comprehend.

Halima Kadir, one of the indigenous women who co-founded The Brilliant Feminine, is someone I had the privilege of working alongside over the past year in western Kenya. Her drive, resilience, and dedication to community health and gender rights work is unwavering, rooted in lived experience and a powerful commitment to creating safer, more equitable futures for women and girls. This walk is a practical way to support the vital work she is leading and help The Brilliant Feminine gain the recognition and backing it deserves. Bottom-up local action is how lasting change takes root, and this is an opportunity to support exactly that.

It’s also a reminder, to myself and others, that when systems fail, we can always start small. Grassroots movements matter. Practical action matters. And hope is something we have to keep choosing, especially now.

Thank you so much for reading this far, and for any support you’re able to give.