Women Helping Women: How WILK Empowers Women in Kenya

Water is Life Kenya (WILK) has always supported women in Kenya. In fact, it was participating in a walk for girls’ education that showed co-founder Joyce Tannian the many disadvantages Kenyan women face. As we wind down Women’s History Month, we’d like to highlight the ways WILK empowers Maasai women in an otherwise patriarchal society.

Life for Maasai women has never been easy. Even now, many women will remain uneducated, marry young (without choosing who they will marry), bear an average of six children, have full responsibility of their household and family, and stay fixed in a cycle of poverty. Because Maasai value cattle more highly than women, this is not an easy cycle to break. That’s why we’ve developed several programs and services specifically for those who are most in need of help.

Specifically, WILK empowers women by teaching them skills to develop into business people and diversify their business opportunities. By switching away from a reliance on livestock—which, during a drought, causes tremendous challenges—our programs help women by giving them entrepreneurship skills and teaching them to work collaboratively. In this way, the cycle of poverty can be overcome and, one day at a time, women can be uplifted.

First Comes Water

The most direct way to help Maasai women is to bring the water to them. One of the daily duties for a woman is to collect enough water for the day. Water is used to clean bodies and clothes, prepare meals, make tea for guests, and feed the animals. But finding water is a problem in such an arid region. Often women must walk for hours just to find water, and then they have to turn around and carry it back to their settlement. Water is found in low-lying areas, so that journey home literally is an uphill climb.

Our WASH projects bring water to these women, saving them hours of time and labor. This gives women a chance to start their own businesses (more on that later) so that they can make and, more importantly, save money. Also, girls who used to accompany their mothers on these water-seeking trips have a better chance of going to school. The water collected from the boreholes is clean, which prevents water-borne diseases in people and their livestock and controls the spread of diseases through handwashing. Because “water is life” for the Maasai, we can help these women have a better quality of life by reducing their burdens.

Taking Ownership Through Building Businesses

Men in Maasai communities have been far from home with their cattle as they search for water during a three-year-long drought. Therefore, the onus of taking care of children falls on the women left behind. That includes paying both borehole and school fees. Widows have a more difficult time generating income since they’re at the bottom of the social totem pole. Fortunately, some women can build on Maasai cultural strengths, like livestock-keeping and beadwork. They also learn to think like business owners and generate more profit based on their location and circumstances.

We started our LAB (Livestock as a Business) program to help Maasai learn new strategies for raising livestock, including cows, goats, and sheep, and managing the drought cycle. We also provide loans and teach them to manage their money and create higher earnings. That money can be used to reinvest in more cattle as well as pay for education costs. We have trained more than 400 women in our LAB program, empowering many of them to own and manage their own livestock for the first time.

Maasai also have a tradition of making beaded handicrafts. Our artisans can make paper beads or glass-beaded jewelry, ornaments, and accessories. When we buy beads directly, artisans are paid upfront—they don’t need to wait for tourists to stop at their villages. When we sell beads on our website, the money goes back into future water projects and other programs we have to support women in Kenya.

We began the Hope for Widows Program specifically to help widows start businesses that help them pay for daily expenses they cannot afford. These businesses range from selling clothing and beads for tourists to preparing and selling food to people in their community. This provides widows with greater autonomy so that they aren’t begging for food and money like they used to do.

Special Cases

In spite of all the ways we try to help, we can’t overcome every obstacle. With a prolonged drought, Maasai women had more obstacles to overcome. Without water, people and animals can’t thrive. The search for water gets longer, which prevents women from generating income through business. Tourism stalls. Schools are empty. The cycle of poverty remains intact.

Until the seasonal rains come back, women still need our help. We’ve started the Special Faces, Special Cases sponsorship program to help as many women and children get through the drought. The best way out of poverty is through education, and donors can sponsor children by covering school expenses that Maasai women can’t afford. Eventually, those children will grow up with a renewed sense of self and purpose as well as knowledge they can use to rise out of poverty.

Women Helping Women

When we help women, we support each other. It doesn’t matter if those women live down the road or in Kajiado County. It’s important for us to empower each other in whatever ways we can. We at WILK will continue to think of new ideas that support Maasai women and encourage them to gain skills and gain confidence in order to improve their lives.