Kenyan-American Exchange Promotes Women's Participation in Leadership: July 10, 2009
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[High Resolution Photo 3] Athens, GA – Ten women from the Georgia will travel to Kenya July 18–31 as part of the Women of the Maasai Empowerment and Networks Project. The two-year project is coordinated by the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia through a grant from the U.S. Department of State. RETO, an umbrella Maasai women's organization, is the main Kenyan partner in the project.
Through a two-part cultural and professional exchange, the project seeks to promote mutual learning and networking between participating Kenyan and Georgia women. It also aims to promote institutional collaboration between Kenya and Georgia.
For the first part of the project, 14 Maasai women from the Rift Valley visited several Georgia cities for three weeks in March 2009, including Athens, Atlanta, Savannah, and LaGrange. They engaged in seminars aimed at enhancing their skills in such areas as public speaking, lobbying and advocacy, grant writing, ethics, media, violence mitigation, conflict resolution, and entrepreneurship. In addition, they participated in discussions with American business and government leaders, many of them women.
While in Kenya for the second part of the project, the American women will visit sites in and around Nairobi, Kajiado, Naivasha, Narok, and Masai Mara, where they will have discussions with government officials as well as members of various organizations that are working to improve the status of women. Topic areas will cover leadership and governance, natural resource management and conservation, agriculture, health, entrepreneurship, education, and violence mitigation. Presenters will include members of parliament, councillors, and ministry, as well as NGO officials.
The American women traveling to Kenya have leadership roles in a variety of public and private organizations in the United States. Many of them interacted with the visiting Maasai women during their trip to Georgia in March.
Njeri Marekia-Cleaveland, a faculty member in the Carl Vinson Institute's International Center at the University of Georgia and a Kenyan-American, is directing the exchange between the Maasai and Georgia women. This is the second year that she has led the project, having organized group trips between Kenya and the United States in 2008 as well. Susan Maxwell, also of the Carl Vinson Institute, is assisting to coordinate the trip.
"Last year's exchange was quite successful in introducing both groups of women to the challenges each faces as they pursue leadership opportunities," said Marekia-Cleaveland. "They discovered many shared experiences. Overall, I think the women from Georgia were inspired most by the Maasai women's sense of sisterhood, community engagement, and responsibility."
Writer: Courtney Yarbrough
Related links:
Women Making A Difference: Empowering Maasai Women from Kenya's Rift Valley
