Project Seeks to Empower Kenyan Women during Georgia Visit: March 7, 2009
[High Resolution Photo] Athens, Ga. – A delegation of 14 Kenyan women will visit Athens, Atlanta, Savannah, and LaGrange March 7–27 as part of the Women of the Maasai Empowerment and Networks Project. The project, which is coordinated by the UGA Carl Vinson Institute of Government’s International Center through a grant from the U.S. Department of State, will expose the women to a range of civic experiences.
The visiting Kenyan women are all Maasai, a seminomadic, herding people living across parts of southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. Maasai society is often male-dominated, and the Women of the Maasai project seeks to empower the visiting Kenyan women through their experiences in America.
The Vinson Institute will sponsor a Brown Bag discussion Tuesday, March 17, at 12:00 pm in the Fanning Building conference room. The Kenyan delegation will participate in panels about women in political participation and entrepreneurship. The event is open to the public, and no advance registration is required.
“The women participating in the project come from different backgrounds in Kenya—urban and rural areas alike will be represented in the delegation,” said Vinson Institute project coordinator Njeri Marekia-Cleaveland, “but they all share an involvement in small business development in their country. We hope that this project will enable the women to be more active participants in their civil society.”
While in the United States, the women will engage in discussions with American business and government leaders, many of them women. Mayor Heidi Davison will address the group at Athens-Clarke County City Hall with insights into effective leadership.
The delegation will also attend learning sessions designed to introduce them to key concepts in leadership and entrepreneurship and to issues facing leaders in local governments and businesses. UGA’s Small Business Development Center will brief the women on the process of starting a small business. Other topics covered will include public speaking, grassroots organization, ethics, conflict resolution, nonprofit management, and grant writing.
Their experience will be supplemented by visits to government agencies and community organizations, such as Habitat for Humanity, Nature Conservancy, Athens Transit System, and the Boys and Girls Clubs.
Cultural experiences also play a significant role in the project. While in Athens, the women will stay in local homes instead of hotels, enabling them to gain a more personal connection with their hosts. Other Georgians will open their homes for dinners and teas honoring the visitors.
The Kenyan delegation will visit the Dekalb Farmers Market, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, and the CNN Center in Atlanta; a school in LaGrange; and the AIDS quilt and an ecological conservation project in Savannah.
This is the second group of Kenyan women to travel to Georgia as part of the Women of the Maasai project. The Vinson Institute hosted a delegation of 28 in spring of 2008. Following that visit, a group of eight Athens women traveled to Kenya with two Vinson Institute faculty members to meet with Kenyan women working in government and nonprofits.
Writer: Courtney Yarbrough
