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Kenya Delegation Wraps Up Georgia Visit

The delegation of 14 Kenyan women visiting Georgia March 7–27 as part of the Women of the Maasai Empowerment and Networks Project had wide-ranging experiences in Savannah, LaGrange, and Atlanta during the last segment of their trip. The project is coordinated by the Vinson Institute's International Center through a grant from the U.S. Department of State.

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 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 engaged in discussions with American business and government leaders, many of them women. Throughout their stay, the delegation also attended learning sessions designed to introduce them to key concepts in leadership and entrepreneurship and to issues facing leaders in local governments and businesses. Other topics covered included public speaking, grassroots organization, ethics, conflict resolution, nonprofit management, and grant writing.

Their experience was supplemented by visits to government agencies, community organizations and schools, such as Habitat for Humanity, Nature Conservancy, Athens Transit System, Boys and Girls Clubs, and the League of Women Voters.

Cultural experiences also play a significant role in the project. While in Athens, the women stayed in local homes instead of hotels, enabling them to gain a more personal connection with their hosts. Other Georgians opened their homes for dinners and teas honoring the visitors.

The Kenyan delegation visited 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.

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