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MADRE Programs in Kenya

Indigenous Information Network

In Kenya, MADRE works with the Indigenous Information Network to implement the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action in Indigenous communities, addressing a range of issues related to women and girls including health care, education and the rights to refuse early marriage and female genital mutilation. For example, MADRE partners with the Network to bring Indigenous African voices to the international arena. In November, 2002, MADRE made it possible for Lucy Mulenkei, director of the Indigenous Information Network, to attend the First International Indigenous Women's Summit in Oaxaca, Mexico.

MADRE also supports the Indigenous Information Network's Breaking the Silence, a training program that provides information on HIV/AIDS, female genital mutilation prevention and reproductive health and rights to thousands of Indigenous Kenyan women.

MADRE has provided the Indigenous Information Network with solar powered computers for trainings in rural Indigenous communities and tape recorders to document the oral histories of elders, preserve threatened Indigenous languages and facilitate public speaking workshops for women.

Umoja Uaso Women's Group

Through the Indigenous Information Network, MADRE works with the Umoja Uaso Women's Group, an organization and community of Indigenous Samburu women formed in 1990 by women who were rejected by their husbands and forced out of their homes after being raped. The women of Umoja have declared their village a violence-against-women-free zone, and are among a group of Samburu women bringing a case against the British military for the rapes of over 1400 Samburu women during the 1980s and 1990s.

MADRE has provided human rights trainings for women in Umoja on political participation, HIV/AIDS, forced female genital mutilation (FGM), and combating domestic violence and child marriage. MADRE supports Umoja's school, which educates children within a human rights framework and offers evening classes for women in the community, and has provided trainings on early-childhood education for teachers from Umoja and nearby communities.

"Many women in our community are suffering from HIV/AIDS. We have to help them understand how it is transmitted, so that they can protect themselves."
- Rebecca Lolosoli, Director, Umoja Uaso Women's Group

MADRE also equips Umoja's school with books, pencils, pads, educational material, toys, and other supplies collected through MADRE's Helping Hands campaign. Recently, MADRE's Harvesting Hope Kenya program provided goats, cows, and camels to Umoja and purchased a small generator for the village.

"Our school needs so many things. Pencils, paper, new paint, glass for windows. And the children, who only speak Samburu, must learn English and Kiswahili if they are to succeed in the future."
- Mary, mother of children who attend the existing school