My heart has always been in two areas – wild open spaces and communities living within and depending on natural resources. These reasons led me to begin working with a group of women weavers in the Kasigau region of Kenya. These weavers, and the community at large, were experiencing natural resource conflicts due to crop-raiding elephants and changing climate caused by climate change. From 2010, I worked with these weavers in Kasigau, helping fine tune their skills (skills inherited from previous generations) and organising them (around 5 groups scattered around Mt. Kasigau) to reach a wider market for their baskets. Over the years multiple players have entered the scene and are also helping the weavers reach markets that now span nearly all continents.
Currently, I have expanded to not only work with the Kasigau weavers but weavers in the Ukambani region in Kenya and weavers in Fort Portal in western Uganda. The former are mainly women who depend on rain-fed agriculture and weaving is an additional form of income. The Ugandan weavers are composed of farmers as well but for most, they have been neglected due to various cultural and social reasons. Weaving for them is a means to be more independent of these socio-cultural norms.
Through blogging, I aim to highlight some of the challenges the weavers undergo as well as raise their profiles in order to create more opportunities for incomes earning through their basket weaving skills.
Kasigau baskets 