Over 150 widows from Kajiado County have received training on commercialisation of beadwork to increase earnings.
The widows were trained on how to use machines to string beads faster and easily so as to meet international market standards.
Speaking in Kumpa, Kajiado Central, Ushanga Initiative Kenya, CEO Dorothy Mashipei noted that many widows in the community are not recognised and undergo a lot of hardships including being disinherited.
Mashipei emphasised the need to empower the widows through training them on skills like beadwork to enable them become financially independent and live a decent life.
“Widows are not recognised in the community and training them on beadwork making and other skills will enable them earn an income and ensure they are financially independent,” she said.
The CEO revealed that through the Ushanga Initiative, the women will be linked to local and international markets to ensure that they reap maximum benefit from their wares.
Mashipei further noted that the women were also trained on how to leverage technology to sell their products and expand their market scope.
The women were taught how to open up social media pages and take pictures of their products and sell them so as to reach a wide global market.
Ushanga Kenya has created a digital platform ‘ushangakenya.co.ke’ to help women access both local and international markets.
Anne Samperu, a beneficiary of the training, hailed the initiative for empowering widows who are often suppressed in the community.
She said through the sale of the beadwork, the women are able to provide food for their families and pay school fees.
“Many widows are normally disinherited once the husband passes on and are left destitute and unable to provide for their children. Through beadwork, the women will now be able to have an income and become financially independent,” Samperu said.
Gladys Kishoyian, another beneficiary of the training, lamented that access to international markets for their beadwork has been a major problem.
She said middle-men have often taken advantage by buying the beadwork at throw-away prices and exporting them at high prices therefore making huge profits without any accrued benefits to the women who toil to make the products.
Kishoyian said through the training, the women had learnt how to digitally market their own products thus they will be able to reach the customers directly.
The Ushanga Kenya Initiative is a national government flagship project established to empower pastoralist women involved in beadwork by transforming their traditional art into tradable commodities for significant economic benefit and sustainable livelihoods
The Initiative also seeks to strengthen business and production capacity for women from pastoralist counties, as well as improve their competitiveness of bead products in local, regional and international markets for sustainable livelihoods.
The project targets women from the seven counties of Turkana, Samburu, Kajiado, Narok, Baringo, Marsabit and West Pokot.
By Rop Janet