When I met Rebecca Lolosoli, I was immediately struck by her strength, perseverance, and her pride in her culture. Rebecca was one of the 20 women who participated in Vital Voices’ Women’s Leadership in Public Life program, held in Washington DC and New York in April 2008, and her aim was to increase the participation of Samburu women in Kenyan politics. Rebecca is Samburu, and throughout her time she wore her traditional dress and beaded necklaces with pride.

Rebecca shares everything she learns and gains with the Samburu women. After participating in our training program in the U.S., she returned and shared the information with others. She not only supports those in her own Umoja village, but women leaders from surrounding villages throughout the district as well. Her follow-up project was to organize trainings at Umoja and two surrounding villages, and our visit to Umoja was to provide trainings in leadership, advocacy, and artisan craft development.

Rebecca is founder and director of the Umoja Uaso Women’s Village, a village in Samburu district, created by women who were fleeing domestic violence, forced marriages, as well as widows and teen mothers who had been abandoned by their families. Rebecca was not a widow or an abandoned woman herself when she started, but she felt compassion for these women, and spoke out publicly during her community’s independence day celebrations. In Samburu tradition, women do not speak publicly, they cannot address men, and they cannot stand while speaking to men but must be seated lower than the men. For having the audacity to stand while speaking to men, and to speak of people who are normally shunned, Rebecca was severely beaten by her relatives, and eventually forced out of her home. Abused and abandoned women all over the district heard about her courageous statement and her compassion for their struggles, and they began to seek her out and ask for advice and help. These women lived in isolation and destitution, living with sickness, hunger, and humiliation. To bring the women together so they could help each other, they created the Umoja Women’s Village.

Despite everything she has gone through and her increased access and visibility to the outside world, Rebecca continues to return to her village and seek opportunities to help the women, including the training we attended.

The women greeted us at the airstrip with singing, and with traditional beaded necklaces with Vital Voices beaded on them. They welcomed us to their village with more songs and dance. The workshop was held at Umoja in an unfinished cement brick building, with the wind whipping through the walls as the windows were not there. The participants were 30 women leaders from Umoja village and other areas far and wide. We were also joined by their pet goat, who quietly sat in every session and even joined the group photo! Many of the women walked through the Samburu National Park to attend the training, and risked their lives walking among wild animals and desert heat, to get to Umoja Village. According to the women, an invitation from Rebecca is not to be dismissed, as she is selfless and generous, and she has never disappointed them.

As participants introduced themselves and their reasons for being there, they spoke of horrific abuse, humiliation, and discrimination faced by Samburu women, and of the need for strategies to earn income so they can provide for themselves and their families as they flee those situations. They also spoke of the need for law enforcement to protect women’s rights, and for a change in attitudes of men toward women. Despite the success of Umoja, the founders don’t encourage all women to live apart from men, but they encourage healthy families that value the safety and security of women and girls. Their ideal goal is to have healthy families and communities where women and girls are appreciated, where they do not have to endure violence, forced circumcisions or child marriages, and from which they would not need to flee. Through our training the Samburu women learned strategies to speak out and advocate for their concerns, and also how to engage partners in their efforts (including men). They are fearless and have great tenacity. Even violence will not deter them from continuing their fight for equality.

Listening to them I was struck by how their needs and concerns were so far apart from what we heard from women in Nairobi. The women in the capitol city hardly realize how much their voices are needed to speak up for these women who are isolated and suffering in the desert. We were able to make connections between the two groups, and now the Samburu women have partners in Nairobi to help them. Our hope is that Samburu women, and all rural women have a greater voice in their national women’s movement.

Upon leaving Samburu, I felt like this was one of the most necessary and successful workshops we had ever had. The women desperately needed the information we had to offer, the replication efforts of Rebecca and her village are outstanding, and it is clear that they will apply what they learned and work with others throughout Kenya to get rural women’s issues onto the national policy agenda.