Media Room

Capacity-building workshops for The Maa Beadwork artisans 

I&M Foundation has been supporting The Maa Beadwork Project through The Maa Trust, which up-skills Maasai women in their traditional handicraft – beadwork – and assists in developing markets for the beaded products. Like many businesses in Kenya, the project facilitated by this Trust was greatly affected by COVID-19.

The support from the Foundation helped the project to, develop its institutional capacity and marketing strategy, expand product range and stock availability, and facilitate the project members to utilize their income effectively through the sustainable spending program.

The Maa Beadwork social enterprise engages 579 empowered Maasai women in an environmentally sustainable livelihood that aims to diversify and increase household income streams lifting families out of poverty. With the support of the I&M Foundation, The Maa Trust trained 14 Trainer of Trainees (TOTs) on income usage. These TOTs have proceeded to train 384 of the 579 Maasai women on the same.