Education for Women in the Village

Picture taken by Francis Sukada (SIMOO), 2008

MWEEP USA has had exciting news about the class being offered in

the village of Oloshoi-bor. The women have now had 10 of their classes.

They attend class 3 of 4 Saturdays of the month.

Women are coming from 4 different villages. Some of them walk up to

2 hours one way.

This past Saturday, August 23rd, the class had a visit from the Interim Executive Director from Project Baobab. This is the group that is offering the class and has developed the curriculum.

Colleen McLaughlin is in Kenya now and went to visit the class with the in country director, Jane, and the head trainer, Ruth. They took along a Spanish journalist from Business Weekly who want to see what the classes were like. Fortunately he took along some photographers so we will hopefully see some of those pictures.

Here are some quotes from Colleen: "The class was fantastic."

" The class is being taught in 3 languages: English, Kiswahili and Kimaasai - which I found incredible - there were women who followed in one, two or all languages."

"We asked the women to share some of the knowledge they've gained though the Project Baobab course and it was so exciting to see all of them anxious to share. They talked about how they had tried business before, but were running things "upside down" and now they understand the importance of bookkeeping, customer relations, business location, marketing, etc. Businesses mentioned were selling milk, a hotel (small restaurant/cafe'), selling mobile top-up cards, braiding hair, a "camera lady" (which challenges gener roles here, as usually men are the "camera men" -- she mentioned that if she hadn't had the lesson on thinking creatively about business ideas, she never would've seen her camera as a business opportunity).

Project Baobab also teaches Life Skills: one woman shared that from the "family relationships" section, she's now learned to communicate with her husband in a way that he is more open to her and even supportive of her.

Then to all of you who have contributed, Colleen said ". . . you should feel great about the opportunity that you have been able to avail these women - it is clear their lives have changed and they said a prayer for you. You have truly made a difference."