Through interventions by the Community Initiatives For Change & Development (CIFCAD), under the Building Bridges for Women’s Economic Empowerment programme, which was supported by Women Win, workers at Kangaita tea factory in Kirinyaga County have been impacted positively outlined by the following impact stories.

Impact case study 1: Susan Njeri. 

Susan Njeri is a 42-year-old lady who hails from the Inoi location in Kirinyaga County. She is a mother of two daughters and one son, her husband passed on a few years ago. The boy is studying at Kiharu technical College, one girl is in Mutira girls’ high school and the other one is studying at St Paul’s University. Susan grew up in the tea-growing zone and has been picking tea from her childhood. Her tea is processed at the Kangaita Tea factory. In the community, she serves as a leader in the capacity of a discipline master for a Saving and lending group of 52 women and a chairperson of a unit in her church.

She is a Tea Extension Service Assistant (TESA) in charge of five collection centers. With a smile on her face, Susan takes me through her daily routine. She wakes up at 6 am, feeds the cows, does household chores, and goes to the farm where she normally picks tea until 1 pm. She later retreats home to continue with any pending household chores.

During the week, Susan goes to church and attends a savings and lending women association group mostly in the afternoon after selling her tea at the collection center. Susan confesses to me that as a leader in the community and the church, she often finds herself in trouble for imposing her ideas and decisions on the members without giving them an opportunity to share their views.

“This training was God sent; it has opened my eyes to realize that participatory decision making is important for a group to operate in unity,” Susan notes.

She adds that if she gives other members a chance to air their views before settling on a decision, all members will own it and there will be less trouble for her.

The training had a positive impact on Susan because she increased her knowledge of Gender Based Violence, and the legal frameworks supporting inclusion in decision making. She became self-aware after conducting a personal SWOT analysis (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats). She promised to share this knowledge with leaders as well as farmers from the five factories she was representing. She promised to be a better leader by utilizing the additional knowledge she had acquired on the qualities of a good leader during the training. As a parent, Susan committed to supporting all her children in their education to demystify the gender stereotypes in society that hinder access to good education and career choices for children because of their gender. Susan happily ends our discussion with her experience of the training. She said that the training was interactive, she had fun, there was openness and she had gotten a chance to express herself.

“My time was not lost in attending this training, I am not the same person, I am changed, I have learned many things, I have something that I can teach others,” Susan concludes.

Impact Case Study 2: Millicent Muthoni

Millicent Muthoni is a 50-year-old woman who hails from Inoi location Kirinyaga County. Works as an Extension Assistant at Kangaita Tea factory. Her work starts at 8 am and ends at 5 pm on weekdays. Millicent wakes up at 5 am, completes her household chores, attends to her livestock, and reports to work at either the Kangaita tea factory or designated tea farms. Her work entails tea farm visits, training farmers in groups on tea husbandry, financial literacy, and management of other enterprises. She often leaves work hurriedly to attend to household chores which according to her society has labeled ‘women’s work’.

Millicent is excited after attending the training because she has experienced a positive personal outcome. She says she can now define and tell the difference between different gender concepts, something she could not do before attending the training. She added that she has a better understanding of the differences between sex and gender roles of females and males in society. Millicent noted that her knowledge of leadership has increased and has a better understanding of GBV and gender legal frameworks supporting the inclusion of all in decision-making. She narrated how cases of GBV sometimes go unnoticed for lack of knowledge but with the knowledge acquired in responding to cases of GBV, she is optimistic that she is in a better position to guide any survivor she will come across in her workplace and in the community on what to do and how to recover. She is grateful to all the partners involved for allowing her to attend the training without any interruptions and in a conducive environment.

“This training has given me a chance to acquire knowledge on various topics, the facilitators enabled free interaction and contributions from all participants, and provision of meals was a great support in increasing my level of concentration.” Millicent said.

Millicent requested if we could consider holding similar training for farmers and collection center committees to increase the numbers of ambassadors or ToTs at a community level. As a participant, she committed to sharing information with colleagues.

Impact Case study 3 – Peter Maina

Peter Maina is a young man aged 32 years. He was born and raised in Inoi Location, Kirinyaga County. He is married and they have a six-year-old daughter. Maina starts his day at 6 am. Takes breakfast prepared by his lovely and caring wife. He passionately describes her. Afterward, Peter feeds the domestic animals and then heads to work. He works as a field worker at Kangaita tea factory; Tea Extension Service Assistant (TESA) from 8 am to 5 pm.

Maina’s work mainly involves checking emails and responding where necessary and attending to farmers that need his services. He also works in tea farms where he conducts farm field demonstrations, educate farmers holistic economic empowerment programme in collection centers, and sensitization of farmers. Maina gets back to his house at around 6 pm after work. He milks the goats and prepares goat feeds for the following day. He assists his daughter with her homework after which, he takes dinner as he watches local and international news and then retires to bed. Maina unapologetically says that he doesn’t help his wife with household chores because he believes it is her responsibility as he provides for the family. He says that he can only help when she is sick to point of not being able to do anything. Maina records that his experience of the training was informative and one that changed his thinking. He says that the training allowed him to learn that most things that shape human beings are gender-related and socially created. He got a better understanding that the ego men have which contributes to demeaning women hurts and denies women opportunities to achieve their goals. He learned that the way men look down on women is as a result of the stereotypes societies have created. Maina says that he gained additional knowledge on gender and related concepts, leadership, grievance redress mechanisms, and two-way communication.

He adds that he will use the skills acquired to train the farmers in his daily work, during field visits, and at the collection centers.

“I was able to take notes using the writing materials provided and I have additional print-out copies of some of the information I was trained on.” Maina noted.

He added that the meals provided saved time that he should have spent going out and he was able to stay in the training throughout. Maina said that the knowledge acquired on gender would help him relate better with women as colleagues at work and his wife without allowing the male ego to control him. He promised to respect women leaders because he would also wish that his daughter will be treated with respect by other men if she became a leader in life