Growing up in the Kenyan slums, Peninah Nthenya Musyimi was surrounded by drugs, prostitution and dire poverty.

“Because I was a woman, people looked at me like any other household slave,” she says.

Peninah turned to education as her lifeline, walking nine miles to attend school every day, and learning basketball within one month to secure a scholarship to college.

Now she’s helping other girls do the same. After getting her law degree she created Safe Spaces, a haven for girls living in extreme poverty in Nairobi, where they can get basketball, yoga, dance, and life skills training and professional development.

Peninah says she started Safe Spaces “to give girls who are growing up in the same harsh conditions that I grew up in a space where they can share their challenges, learn and nurture their talents.”

(WATCH her tell the story below)