Esther Long’ida Kivuyo Biography

Esther is a Maasai woman from the Arusha region of Tanzania. She comes from an extended family in that her father had two wives. She is her mother’s third child and her father’s fourth child. Ester went to primary school in Lengijave village and later transferred to Nairobi to continue her primary education. After primary school, Esther was forced to stay at home as her parents never wanted her to proceed with her studies but rather wanted her to get married. In 2004, Esther met a Catholic sister from Holland, named Sister Marrielle in the church in Lengijave village. Sister Marielle provided some seminars to Esther and other children in the village, whereas Esther was the chair person in that seminar something which impressed sister Marrielle and made follow-up to know her background.

Sister Marrielle connected her to Father Ned who supported Esther to continue her education. In March 2004, Esther joined pre-Form One to brush up on basic skills, and in 2005, she continued on to secondary school at Ngarenarok Girls under the sponsorship of Kunezuva through Sylvia Brooijmans. Esther now holds a certificate in journalism, a diploma in human resource management, and a bachelor degree in public administration. Esther is responsible to her family since she was in school up to this moment, she was able to go in class in the day time and night time she works as a security guard she was employed by KK Security Company, she had no option as the family depends on her and other basics need were to be met, but that couldn’t hinder her to help out any young girl who is facing challenges, in 2019 she started by accommodating a young girl who is an orphan and her two siblings without any help from other people, the children became the part of her family.

Before devoting her work fulltime to every child counts, Esther served as human resource manager at Tengeru flowers and Gold Crest Hotel. The passion she had on helping her Maasai community, especially young girls made her not to engage in any other business rather than conducting seminars in villages and in primary and secondary schools. She is currently working to end female genital mutilation and supporting education in the Maasai community. In 2017, Esther joined AMREF for three months to gain more knowledge on how to conduct projects alike with her dreams. She is so dedicated to this work that she has started Every Child Counts(ECC) as a nonprofit organization in Tanzania which is officially registered under the Non Government Organization Act of 2002, on 30^th September 2020.