Maa Trust signs partnership deal worth Kshs 1. Million

By Njeri Kimani

The I&M Bank Foundation has formed a new partnership with The Maa Trust and donated Kshs.1M to support Maa Beadwork.

The money is intended to support Maa Beadwork social enterprise which engages 579 Maasai women in an environmentally sustainable livelihood.

Maa Beadwork aims to: diversify and increase household income streams lifting families out of poverty; contribute towards the reduction of gender inequality through women’s empowerment; reduce household environmental impacts, and; improve perceptions of conservation and wildlife.

The 1M cash injection will help Maa Beadwork to, develop the institutional capacity and marketing strategy for Maa Beadwork, expand product range and stock availability, facilitate Maa Beadwork members to utilize their income effectively through the Sustainable Spending programme, and coordinate capacity building for Maa Beadwork members.

Maa Beadwork upskills 579 Maasai women in their traditional handicraft – beadwork – and develops markets for the beaded products.

Maa Beadwork purchases all raw materials, then a Maa Beadwork staff member takes the required materials and product cards to the villages where they meet with a beading group (comprised of 20 – 40 women), and the work is distributed.

The artisans are paid a pre-agreed price for the beading of each item, which is determined by the amount of time required. This piecemeal payment system is based on a daily rate of KES 500 / 5 US Dollars.

When the beaded products are returned to the Maa Beadwork offices, the item is finished and labeled. The ladies are paid for their work systematically, regardless of whether the item that they produced has already been sold or not.

Like many businesses in Kenya, Maa Beadwork has been greatly affected by COVID 19. The main market for Maa beadwork in the Maasai Mara is the tourism industry; because of the drastic decline in visitor numbers, sales are 74 percent down in 2020 as compared to 2019.

In March, The Maa Trust made the difficult decision to close. This decision was made for the safety of their team, and to adhere to government regulations enacted to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in Kenya.

The closure of The Maa Trust meant that the women engaged in Maa Beadwork and other social enterprises were no longer getting any work or income, exacerbating deepening household poverty.

During this lockdown period, The Maa Trust distributed $19,500 worth of food to the members of Maa Beadwork and Trust’s other social enterprises. During this food distribution exercise, the women kept asking them when they can return to work.

In June, Maa Beadwork resumed production. As their main beadwork market, tourism, has been decimated by the virus, they had very few orders to be released for the ladies to make.

They, therefore, launched a fundraising appeal to get the ladies back to work creating a stockpile for Maa Beadwork so that rather than having to make each order when it is placed, orders can be released quickly, and they can make sure that their shop is always fully stocked.

Through this initial fundraising appeal, they were able to raise $17,000. The Maa Trust has exhausted all the money raised through the first appeal, and so the money donated by I&M Bank Foundation, under its Economic Empowerment pillar is a big break for Maa Beadwork.

The Maa Trust is a non-profit organisation working with community-owned conservancies in the Maasai Mara, Kenya. They work to increase the benefits of wildlife and conservation to Maasai families so that they appreciate and contribute to the protection of, wild animals on their land.