Feminist Trailblazers in Kenya

Umoja's Women Village

In the red sands of Samburu, Kenya, fifteen brave souls created a women’s village in 1990. Called Umoja, or “Unity” in Swahili, this village provides refuge to women in a society that sees them as property–and expendable.  Umoja provides shelter for women fleeing female genital mutilation, child marriage, rape, forced abortions, and more.  These are not isolated abuses–these are injustices that every Samburu girl and woman faces in her life.

Together, the women create beaded handicrafts to sell to passing tourists. With that money they’ve created a primary school to educate the next generation–not only in reading and writing, but that women’s rights are also human rights. There are currently 38 women and their children in the village and almost 80 students from the surrounding villages who attend Umoja’s school.

Umoja’s matriarch, Rebecca Lolosoli

When Umoja’s matriarch, Rebecca Lolosoli, helped to found Umoja more than three decades ago, she had no blueprint, no role model. Within this northern Kenyan culture, the idea that women had any rights was a laughable concept at best, while most regarded it as a dangerous notion that must be squashed.

Rebecca and the women of Umoja came to this ideology on their own, in an absolute vacuum. They’ve dedicated their lives to saving other women from indignity, abuse, and death–even in the face of being murdered for daring to question the status quo.

We had the good fortune to visit Umoja in September 2022 and 2024 and learn more from Rebecca directly. She showed us a traditional house made of cow dung and wood, but this one had been modified with a stones and a metal door. Violent men –angry at the women for bucking the norm and doing what they need to do to survive– still storm the village and break into houses to hurt these women in unimaginable ways.

A proper door on their homes provides a much-deserved sense of security. Twenty houses still need this safety upgrade at $350 USD per door. Although Umoja will use donations as they see fit, we would like to think of this as “The Door Project,” providing basic security to the most vulnerable women and children.

As you can imagine, they were particularly hard hit when tourism stopped during the global lockdown. If you feel moved to support the women of Umoja, we would be happy to facilitate the bank wire to Umoja’s Kenya bank account and pay the associated fees.

Rebecca shows us one of the upgraded doors that provides more safety for the women and children inside. 

Here are the best ways you can support:
  • PayPal:  samarin62lolo@gmail.com (personal transaction) (This is Recebba’s direct PayPal account)
  • I’d be happy to give you Umoja’s banking information directly!
Here is a bit more to get you started if you wish to learn more about Umoja:

2024 update: One of our September 2024 guests generously donated enough for twenty houses to be upgraded! Here are some of the images Rebecca has sent so far:

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