Peninah Musyimi

Peninah Nthenya Musyimi (born December 1978) is a Kenyan lawyer activist, who established the 'Safe Spaces' project, to empower young women who were growing up in the slums of Nairobi.

The project draws on her own life experience as the first person from her neighbourhood in the Mathare Valley to graduate from university.

[2] Alcohol, drugs and prostitution are common sights in Mathare Valley, which affect the ability of young people from there to access education.

[4] With intensive training, she passed the basketball trials and obtained a $400 scholarship to attend the University of Nairobi, where she studied Law and Social Science.

[2] She also partnered with the M. Night Shyamalan Foundation (where she is listed as a leader) in a collaborative effort that supported an additional of 300 new girls to the Safe Spaces.

[8] It began with an initial meeting in her home with a small group of teenagers, where they discussed how women were "treated like trash".