Success story: former Young Journalist winner influences a change in the law

A story by a former winner of the Thomson Foundation Young Journalist Award has brought about a change in the law in Kenya. All Kenyan schoolgirls are now to get free sanitary pads, the government has said.

Four years ago, Judy Kosgei won the Thomson Foundation Young Journalist award for her revelatory stories, which included a story about how up to two million young girls were unable to access sanitary towels.

Judy, who at the time was working for Kenya’s leading media house, Citizen TV, interviewed girls living in a remote village in Kenya’s Baringo county to discover how this affected their lives.

Eight hundred and fifty thousand girls were missing school in Kenya each month because they didn’t have adequate sanitary protection.

The Young Journalist Award reaffirmed that little voice in my head that said changing lives begins with me.

A move towards a just world

Judy is now regional communications officer in the Africa office for Equality Now, a group which advocates using the law to bring about change, where she is fronting national campaigns to end the harmful practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and stop sexual violence against women.

In some areas of Africa, the deeply rooted “tradition” demands that girls undergo FGM. The practice was banned in Kenya in 2011 but there have been only two prosecutions, with one of those prosecuted serving a seven-year prison sentence.

“I want to shape a world that is free of violence and where girls and women can enjoy their rights,” says Judy.

Kenya’s schoolgirls will get free sanitary pads. It's a victory for our former Young Journalist winner, Judy Kosgei, who uncovered the plight of girls in 2013.

Young Journalist Award

Judy’s winning entry was chosen from more than 100 entries from 40 countries in 2013. Visit the Young Journalist section to learn more about the annual award and how to apply.