Eight years ago when Sara and I first started Ajiri Tea, we met with Pauline, at the time, the only female manager of a tea factory in Kenya. Pauline encouraged us, but cautioned, "You're up against a lot." What she meant by "a lot" was the male-dominated society. A culture where women are unemployed or underemployed. A culture where women can grow the wheat, make the flour, bake the bread, but will never be seen as "breadwinners."
It wasn't that the women weren't working before Ajiri Tea. They just weren't getting paid. In Kenya, it is the women who fetch the firewood. It is the women who walk to the river to collect water and then carry it home. It is the women who cook, the women who clean. It is the women who tends to the shamba, or small-farm.* And it is the women who worry if their children have a school uniform. If their children have light to study. If their children have enough food to eat.
Comments will be approved before showing up.
Kate Holby
Author