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Meet the Board
Meet the Board
MARA CONSERVATION
encouraging empathy for other life
MLP Team in Morocco
Advisors in Morocco
Meet 8 women of the Oliveseed Women's Work Center, and learn what they'd like to tell you about themselves
Senkei Kasoe
Senkei is mother to three children and uses her earnings from the Women’s Center to pay school fees and buy uniforms that keep her children in school. She’s also saving to build a permanent house.
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In traditional Maasai villages, women build temporary homes from cow dung and soil. These have a lifespan of about 10 years, after which the homes deteriorate, so villages relocate and rebuild. For Senkei, a permanent house means she can refocus her efforts on other things that her family and community need, like opening her own shop or starting a microbusiness.
Kisiong'u Kasoe
Kisiong’u is mother to eight children, and with her earnings from the Women’s Center she is putting six of them through school. She's saving part of her income toward building a better house for her family and plans to purchase cows of her own so she can sell milk at the marketplace.
Kisiong’u, like many Maasai women, learned beading from her mother. She enjoys teaching other women at the Women’s Center and training in new techniques like sewing sanitary kits.
Noosekin Kasoe
Noosekin is mother to five children. She uses her income from the Women’s Center to pay school fees and buy uniforms that keep four of them in school. She installed a cement floor in her home and would like to have a web store that features her own beadwork.
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Noosekin’s husband John acknowledges her success and supports her ambitions. The Women’s Center has garnered a reputation in the community for demonstrating results, and he is championing its expansion.
Nkoiseli Kasoe
Nkoiseli uses her earnings from the Women’s Center to pay school fees and buy uniforms for six of her seven children. She, like many other women here, also uses her earnings to feed and clothe her family. ​
Nkoiseli aspires to open a pharmacy for animals. The Maasai people are stewards of wildlife and co-exist with them in small villages throughout the Maasai Mara. They effectively guard against poaching. Rather than hunting, they raise and herd domestic animals for food.
Kitango Karia
Lead seamstress Kitango developed the Women’s Center sewing program from scratch. Sewing machines were a new technology for the women here, who have a long history of doing beadwork. They were up to the task. The women Kitango has trained are now making sanitary kits for schoolgirls and continue to work under her training and guidance.
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Sanitary kits enable young girls to remain in school without embarrassment of being unable to manage their monthly cycles in public. Their education creates an alternate path to early marriage and early childbearing. Kitango’s team has delivered 1000s of kits to local students, with more on the way. The women are proud of their contribution and its positive impact on girls.
Naiswaku Soit
Naiswaku is mother to six children, two of whom are in school and three others who have completed their secondary school education and are working as teachers. Her husband is 90 years old now. With her earnings from the Women’s Center, she’s become the primary source of income for her household, which includes three co-wives and their combined thirty children.
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As one of the elder women at the Women’s Center, Naiswaku enjoys engaging with and guiding other women in beading techniques and collectively sharing design patterns and ideas that evolve their work.
Nookipa Soit
Nookipa is a widowed mother of five children. She is using her earnings from the Women’s Center to send three of them to school, which requires school fees and uniforms. Her beadwork income is a significant contribution to the support of her family, enabling her to buy food, clothing, and gas. She aspires to buy a water tank for her home, which would relieve the burden of walking long distances to the well and carrying home a 5-gallon container.
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Nookipa feels that her work at the Women’s Center is valued. It has raised her standing in the community and has had a positive effect on her own self-esteem.
Lilian Nkong’oru
Lilian is mother to three children, all of whom she is putting through school with her earnings from the Women’s Center. For many of the women who work here, earnings from beadwork and sewing are their first income. She finds the work fulfilling, and her family is supportive and encouraging.
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Lilian is also saving for a water tank to offset water scarcity in her community, where twice a week she walks to a well to collect water that she carries home in a 5-gallon container. Oliveseed projects providing clean water have significantly improved the lives of women in the Maasai Mara by enhancing overall health and quality of life.