Youth and Women’s Empowerment

Womens Empowerment

The women’s empowerment programme builds the capacity of women through the formal registration of women’s groups, which then receive training on a variety of skills including microfinance, household financial management, nutrition, cancer detection and adult numeracy and literacy. The groups are also trained how to apply for and manage loans from the Women’s Enterprise Fund and Uwezo.

A cohort of 20 women from across the Maasai Mara who have shown leadership potential have come together to form the Women in Leadership Council. This council is receiving intensive training on leadership skills, and in return, are empowering their fellow Maasai women, and girls in schools.

Youth Empowerment

The construction of the Youth Friendly Centre (YFC) in Talek provides an essential resource space for youth empowerment. At the IT hub at the YFC, youth can access IT training (basic packages or International Computer Driving License) and one-on-one career guidance. Career guidance has been completely absent from the Mara to-date, and so this programme is addressing a critical gap. Career guidance clubs have been formed in all nine secondary schools in the Mara, so that children can be guided through the tertiary education application process, and The Maa Trust coordinates annual career guidance fairs where universities and technical training colleges come and advertise their courses to the youth of the Mara.