‘’Lots of people in my town still believed in the culture…like getting married, have children early…to me, it was different, I wanted to push up my career. I wanted to be somebody else. When I go back and I look at my old schoolmates, it sometimes comes to my mind what they would be if they left aside all this culture. They are not poor as such but I think that they could be happier.’’

Veronica comes from Kenya, the largest country by GDP in East and Central Africa which is often classified as an emerging economy. Still, 17.7% of people live below 1.25 USD a day and almost 40% of the population are illiterate. Currently based in Hong Kong, she is one of the leading paleoecologist in an international team working on paleoenvironmental dynamics and linking it with human evolution. Her research has been widely praised by international scientific audience.