Meet Koyiaso

Koyiaso is from Oltome village in Amboseli. She is an active woman of 45 and has four children. She lost her husband four years ago and joined WILK’s Hope for Widows Pilot program in July 2022. Whenever you see Koyiaso, she is carrying on her back a big load of textiles and clothing which she sells from village to village. From the profit she earns through her business, she buys food and pays school fees for her family. Koyiaso has also saved enough money to make improvements to her home. She recently built a fence to protect her family from lions and even piped water from the nearby borehole to her house.

Koyiaso said, “Before I joined WILK’s Hope for Widows program, I was shy. I felt hopeless. Now I have ideas and can talk in front of people. I am able to make a profit and manage my business. I have enough knowledge so that my business won’t collapse when I have big expenses like school fees. I am known as a business lady, where before people would avoid me because I had nothing.”

Koyiaso has blossomed as she built her business with the grant she received from WILK. When she talks about how grateful she is for the chance to change her life, she cries. She had a hard time since losing her husband and didn’t see how her situation could improve. But now, hope is alive!

Empowering Widows through Business Skills

In the Hope for Widows program, we train women in business skills, self-empowerment, women and family health, and their rights as widows. After training, we award a cash grant of $150 to start their small businesses and three goats to start their herds. Based on our 2022-23 pilot program results, we found that a one-time donation of $800 means a woman receives $2,400 in benefits through increases in four key financial indicators: income, assets, savings, and business inventory.

1. Increase in Income – Women went from an average of $50 per month to $200 per month. This means $1,800 more per year for these women and their children.
2. Increase in Savings – Most women began with $0 in savings. Now they are saving $50 per woman in 6 months. This is growth of $100 per year.
3. Increase in Assets – After receiving goats, their livestock assets have grown from an average of 2 goats per woman (worth $120) to 6 goats per woman (worth $360).
4. Consistent Inventory – With this new financial discipline, women can maintain inventory, run their small businesses consistently, and keep their customers coming back.

Additional Benefit: Improved Household Nutrition

In addition, we have seen significant improvement in household nutrition. Before the program, women were eating two meals a day, one of which was only a cup of tea. But by July 2023, they were eating two meals a day with real food, like vegetables and ugali, rice and beans, corn and beans, or porridge with milk, along with a cup of tea for breakfast. Now they are strong, healthy, and energetic. And when we asked how their quality of life had changed, the women told us that their confidence, hopefulness, feeling of belonging, and belief in their ability to “handle things” had increased.

They Could Use Your Help

So many more women need the training and grants, especially due to the inflation of staple food
costs, a weak Kenyan currency, and drought causing poor harvests. Widow-led families feel the pressure even more than others. Providing skills and seed money will boost these women and build resilience so they can thrive in an uncertain environment.

Your gift of $150 will provide money for a widow to start her business; $460 will fund one year of training; $800 will support a widow in her first year of the Hope for Widows Program, including the grant, goats, and training.

Together, we can do even more. Any amount you give will be put towards our work of Helping Kenyans Bloom. Thanks to you, widows in Kenya can care for themselves and their families with dignity and hope.

The post Hope for Widows Spotlight: One Woman’s Journey as a Businesswoman appeared first on Water is Life Kenya.

Why Goats & Grants?

You may be asking: Why goats and grants…again?

Last November, the first round of Hope for Widows participants had their Goats & Grants ceremony. Since then, they’ve been running their businesses, saving money, and reliably providing for their families.

The goats (two females and one male) are long-term investments for the widows. These women need to build capital and livestock is still a good investment in the region. Having a built-in savings account that compounds over time—especially as they have babies!—is a key component of increasing capacity.

The grants are short-term cash infusions to help jumpstart the widows’ small business ventures. With these grants, they are able to buy what’s necessary to stock their shops, as well as any raw materials needed for production.

Giving, and Giving Back

At this ceremony, a total of 32 women, 15 from Ogulului and 17 from Amboseli, completed the Hope for Widows training over the summer. Sessions primarily covered business strategies to help the women learn how to build savings and how much to invest into what they’ll be selling. There will also be a training session in the future dedicated to women’s health issues.

Each widow received a grant of $150 (about 20,000 Kenyan shillings) and three goats (two female, one male). The money is to be invested in their businesses, so they have 10 days to make a supplies list and purchase what they need. The goats are additional collateral that give the women a source of savings.

Here’s an example of what was purchased with the grant:

Two Groups, One Heart

Now, where do the baby goats come in?

Some of the goats distributed in November did what goats do—and had babies. With grateful hearts, the widows who own these goats decided to “pay it forward.”

Each widow with multiple babies gave one baby goat to a woman in need. There were plenty of smiles, tears, and happy dancing when the handovers happened. For us, seeing this level of reciprocity is a dream come true.

At the ceremony, women distinguished themselves by the length of their participation in the Hope for Widows program. Those who completed their training last year wore blue shukas while new participants wore orange. Women from the pilot group also gave baby goats to friends who needed a boost of help. Overall, the ceremony became a celebration of the hard work all these women have done so far.

Past Success Leads to a Future With Hope

Speaking of hard work, Group 1 of the Hope for Widows participants is nearing the end of its first year. We recently traveled to Amboseli and the Kilimanjaro Highlands to check in with these groups. While surveying their experience thus far, we asked about the most impactful skills they’ve learned. Two answers were repeated: making a profit and becoming self-reliant. 

Despite the long drought that’s been plaguing Kenya, these women managed to make enough money to cover their expenses, and then some. Last year, the widows would often skip meals to make sure their kids ate. Now, they’re eating every day. They received their second grant earlier in August and, with their experience, they know how to put it to the best use possible.

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Building Blocks for Success

Over the last couple years, we’ve helped Maasai widows obtain their rightful land and learn important business skills. Last week, we went to Amboseli and the Kilimanjaro Highlands to meet with women from our first groups of the Hope for Widows program. We asked them the most impactful skills they learned in the program’s pilot, and there were two answers that were repeated: making a profit and becoming self-reliant. In spite of a devastating drought that carried into this year, these women managed to make enough money to cover their expenses, send their kids to school, and create a savings box, even during rapidly increasing inflation.

This might seem like a small feat, but its significance should not be overlooked. WILK Co-founder Joseph Larasha noted that these women look very different this year; specifically, they’re healthy. The widows are eating regularly, feeding their children and sending them to school, and building their businesses. One widow said, “My life is very different now. I am able to take care of my children and eat a meal every day.” Another widow said, “What more can I need?” It’s humbling to hear these reactions, and it shows us that the Hope for Widows program is impacting their lives—for the better.

Responding to Needs

We also asked the widows what they would do with a second grant. At first, the Kilimanjaro widows said they wanted to use the grants to buy more land. This is outside the requirements we have to receive the second grants; buying land, at this stage, would not help them increase business capital. These widows seemed to have missed the point.

We traveled down to meet them, anticipating a difficult talk where we crush their homesteading dreams. When we arrived, however, they had collectively changed their minds, noting that they could use the money in better, more profitable ways. After sharing their initial plans with us, they got together and had their own brainstorming session. Without our prompting, they realized their ambitions were off track and readjusted their hopes to better support what would be best. The fact that they came to this conclusion shows just how much they learned by participating in the program.

They received their second grants from us last week, this time for $100. With their businesses already off the ground, this cash infusion should help stabilize operations and take these ladies to the next level. We can’t wait to see what they do to further improve their businesses.

Hope for Those Without It

One widow named Koyiaso has certainly made the most of her new business skills. She decided to sell Maasai fabrics, which she purchases in Arusha, Tanzania, and then sells at various markets in Kajaido County. She will walk as far as 5-6 km (about 3.5 miles) to sell shukas and other garments. As a result of her efforts, she saved enough money to buy a fence that now surrounds her property.

One day, our team was driving to visit one of our boreholes when they saw a very small woman carrying a pack on her back about the size of her. They slowed down only to see that it was Koyiaso, making her daily commute. She was so excited for our team to see her putting her training into action. This is just one example of the success our widows are achieving.

Another mark of success has been a true Maasai favorite–baby goats. At the Goats and Grants Ceremony last year, three goats and $200 USD grants were distributed to the widows. In the past few weeks, many of the goats had babies. The widows have agreed to paying their good fortune forward by giving one of their baby goats to other women in need. They’ve learned to work hard, work together, and work towards autonomy.

They also have new goals they’d like to reach. When we asked what else they’d like to get out of the Hope for Widows program, they had some suggestions. A group bank account of their own was one. Another was a chance for field trips. We’ll continue to provide training and opportunities for these widows in order to help them have successful businesses.

What’s Next for the Widows

After distributing the second round of grants, we began meeting with the second round of widows in Ogulului to start their training. This time, we’ve chosen mostly young women (the average age is 30) who are recently widowed. These widows have younger children who are still dependent on them, and many have lost their husbands within the past couple years. They also are still dealing with the drought because it didn’t rain in Ogulului. Unlike the Kilimanjaro or Amboseli widows, some of these widows have been working as day laborers, hiring themselves out to build houses in other towns. Others have been building thorn-bush fences. Still others have been making beadwork and selling it at the market.

It’s also clear these younger widows are having difficult time processing their grief. It’s our hope that having a community of women who are dealing with the same issues will benefit them as they step out of the darkness of isolation and into the light of community. Already, this group shows great promise, resolve, and determination, characteristics needed to run successful businesses in the hard, semi-arid Kajiado bush.

We’ll be carrying out essential training session in August, culmination with the next Goats and Grants Ceremony on August 26 so that they can get started with their businesses as soon as possible. We’re forward to another successful, transformative year with this new group.

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Water is Life Kenya (WILK) has been addressing some of the problems Maasai widows face in the pilot of our Hope for Widows program. Though the cultural circumstances of Maasai widows create unique situations, like widows across the globe they suffer from poverty, violence, and health problems. Let’s look at the difficulties these widows face along with ways we’re helping them overcome those challenges.

The History of International Widows’ Day

International Widows’ Day, begun by The Loomba Foundation, attempts to educate the world about the plight that widows face on a daily basis. In 1954, Raj Loomba saw how his mother’s life completely changed the moment that his father died. He realized that if he had been the son of a poor widow, he would not have had all the advantages gained from a prosperous background and collegiate education. After his mother died in 1997, he and his wife set up a fund to help widows in India and their children.

He realized, however, that India was not the only place where widows struggled. Abuse and discrimination, especially in Asia and Africa, subjected widows to degrading treatment and little to no financial support. In 2005, Loomba addressed the House of Lords in London to expose the plight of widows around the world. His goal was to encourage governments and international organizations to develop programs and effective policies in an effort to break the cycle of poverty and degradation for widows worldwide.

WILK Field Officers Nelson (left) and Cate right, alongside WILK Co-Founder, Joyce (center) reviewing the record keeping of Hope for Widows participants at a meeting.

WILK’s Widows

Maasai widows face significant challenges. Because young women often are married to older men, most Maasai women become widows—and are expected to not remarry. In a patriarchal society, a woman’s sons will inherit property and take on leadership roles in the community; widows, therefore, must rely on their sons to care for them when their husbands die. Since daughters are taught to accept subservience to their future husbands, women often find themselves unable to support themselves and their young children if their husband dies early. They resort to begging for food and money.

The first iteration of our Hope for Widows program intended to teach the most vulnerable Maasai widows—including young women without older sons to support them—how to build profitable businesses. If these women could earn and save more money, they could use it to buy nutritious food more regularly, pay school fees on time, and live with more dignity during devastating drought conditions, like the one endured over the past several years.

Some women, like the Amboseli widows, took to the challenge. They learned to work as a group. Though their businesses are independent of each other, they have a support network and help out when times get tough.

Successful Amboseli widows traveled to our other widows’ group in the Kilimanjaro Highlands. They shared how they learned to work together and help one another during difficult times. These women were empowered to work hard, provide for their families, and build a better future for themselves and each other. This is what’s possible when WILK’s community of givers supports women in need in Kenya.

These widows have been working hard to start and run successful small businesses. They report higher levels of self-confidence and more support from others since beginning the program.

There’s More Work to Do

More than half of the women who participated in the Hope for Widows program last year managed to save enough money to withstand a 2.5-year-long drought. Still, we have a long way to go before more Maasai women are financially independent. Societal mores, a harsh living environment, malnutrition, and illiteracy are not easy to overcome. Each widow has a unique situation, which means we have to be creative when developing a program that fits her individual needs.

Though the challenge is steep, the imminent success is worth the cost. In the coming years of Hope for Widows, we will continue to support widows with workshops, training opportunities, and a sense of community. With these efforts, will be one step closer to bringing Maasai widows out of impoverishment, marginalization, and dependence on others.

On this International Widows Day, we at WILK affirm our commitment to addressing the needs of Maasai widows and developing solutions to empower them. These women work so hard for their families. It’s a privilege to get to work with them.

The Amboseli Widows celebrate their certificate from the Kajiado County Government which officially recognizes them as a Self-Help Group (February 2023).

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To keep you in the know, we’ve compiled highlights from our WILK Wednesdays for you here. We hope you enjoy this brief review of how you and our generous community of donors have been helping Kenyans bloom this year.

Working With Our Partners

In January, we hosted Engineers Without Borders – Delaware Professional Chapter, an amazing group of engineers who volunteer their vacation time to complete service projects in Kenya. This time, they worked at Imurtot Primary School in Loitokitok to repair the rainwater catchment system they installed in 2020. They also scouted for areas where they can provide water collection assistance in the future. We look forward to EWB’s next project!

We also partnered with the Lions Club, which has connected us to many selfless people. On February 9, we visited the United Nations campus in Nairobi for the annual Lions Day at the UN event. Speakers including Deputy President of Kenya Rigathi Gachagua discussed the importance of tackling the global climate crisis. The persistence of lengthy droughts, including the 2.5-year-long drought that communities in Kajiado County dealt with, has negatively affected the Kenyan economy. The Lions stand in solidarity with local NGOs, as climate change has brought problems to much of East Africa and around the world.

In happier news, our friend Paul of the Pike Creek Green Hills Lions Club made a donation for the Nooriro Community Borehole, drilled just after Lions Day. In fact, Paul was with us when, at 150 meters, we hit water! The mission for each Lions Club is to serve others, and our friends from Pike Creek went above and beyond that calling to help the people in Nooriro get that much closer to having clean water available to them.

Borehole Projects in Progress

Not only did we begin a new borehole project in Nooriro, we also celebrated the Opening Ceremony for the Empalakai borehole in Rombo, Kajiado. Sakimba Parashina, a member of the Kenyan Parliament, was there for the ceremony. Also present was the choir from St. Francis Church in Karen, Nairobi—where Joyce sings. They celebrated with great gusto, singing hymns and bringing food to the women of Empalakai. The event also was featured on CitizenTV, the local Kenyan news station. With clean water now available, residents can come back to Empalakai and take advantage of their new local water source. A video of this event is available on Water is Life Kenya’s YouTube page.

We also installed a water pump for the borehole at Ilkisonko Boys High School which was drilled last year. This pump was purchased through the generosity of our Giving Tuesday donors, who helped us raise $15,000 in a single day. Many Maasai men have attended and graduated from Ilkisonko, and the school’s reputation has improved due to its strong, dedicated teachers. Now the borehole is not only benefiting the Ilkisonko students at staff, but also providing clean water to the surrounding community.

This month, construction at Nooriro has begun. Our contractor has been hard at work to lay the foundation for the water tank, pump house, pipelines, and latrines. Local people are benefitting from the work, too, as they’re hired and paid fairly as day laborers. The community is delighted to be building this well together!

Hope for Widows

It’s been a year since we implemented our Hope for Widows Pilot Program. Based on the results we’ve complied, we’ve learned so much about what we can do to help women who otherwise would have to beg for food and money to support their children.

After 7 training sessions, in November these widows were each were given $200 and three goats at the Goats and Grants Ceremony. Then they started their businesses in December, and we’ve been monitoring their progress to determine how we can make the program more effective in the future. Even during the worst part of the drought, 50-60% of the women used their new skills to both save money for food and school fees as well as invest more into their business. What a victory!

Recent Events

We’ve been all over the tristate area to spread the word about WILK! In March, we participated in the Faith Filled Women Conference in Salisbury, MD, bringing news—and beads!—to women from different churches in the area. We also took part in Dansko Ladies Night in West Grove, PA. It was fun to spend time with our friends at Dansko again and connect with the other community vendors that were there.

In April, we partnered with CoroAllegro for three nights of music and culture in their Around the World in 80 Minutes concerts. Our very own Joyce Tannian collaborated with the group and brought some Kenyan music to Newark and Wilmington. We also overcame the rain while under tents at University of Delaware’s AG Day event. Students, parents, professors, and Newark community members stopped by to learn more about how they can support our Maasai friends in Kenya, and hundreds of people walked away with beautiful Beaded Handicrafts. What’s better than spreading joy and hope on a rainy day? 

We also hosted our 7^th Thirst Reverse event in Newark, DE, as well as our 1^st in Ardmore, PA. Both events were at Iron Hill Brewery and Restaurant locations. Thanks to their generosity—and the generosity of all our esteemed, Kenyan-Quench-drinking guests—we were able to raise funds to reboot our Livestock as a Business (LAB) program. Many people were excited to donate cows and goats to our Kenyan friends! We hope to take this event on the road again, branching out to new areas to reach even more people who would like to eat, grab a beer, and learn about our life-changing work.

Past and Present Special Campaigns

Last but not least, we’ve promoted several campaigns to help our Maasai friends deal with the drought that’s only recently let up. In September, October, and November, we brought food staples to both schools and families throughout Kajiado County. Then again in February, with the drought still in effect, we delivered more food to schools whose students were starving. In all, you, our donors, contributed $45,000 in food relief during the worst part of the drought.

During our time in Kenya, we saw just how many people, and especially women, suffered because of the drought. It impacted their ability to purchase food, pay school fees, and, in general, care for their families. So many children came to us for help because they just wanted to go back to school. We started our sponsorship program, Special Faces, Special Cases, to help support those who needed money for their school fees. We hope to sponsor as many children as we can so that they’ll get the education they want so much.

That brings us to the present! We hope you’ve enjoyed our summary of events and operations from the year so far. Please consider signing up for our bi-monthly WILK Wednesday newsletter at our new website so you can follow along in real time. And, as always, thank you for your continued support over the last fifteen years. None of this work would be possible without dedicated supporters like you.

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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.

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