Brooke's Update

Nebehetay (Rendille for hello)
So excited- off to visit the women's groups today. I can't get enough of these women!
The Northern Rangelands Trust has set up a trading and enterprise operation aimed at creating different income streams based on local culture and skills. The obvious choice for women of Melako Conservancy is their incredible beadwork. The people of Melako use beadwork to tell a story about the person wearing it. With a woman you can tell her age, marriage status and even how many children she has by her beadwork. The colours symbolize different things as well- red represents the lifeblood of the animals and white the milk.
NRT trading has turned this talent into an enterprise, the women receive adult literacy classes, business management, marketing lessons and NRT connect with markets locally and internationally to sell the products.

Visiting these groups is like walking into the estrogen zone!! And the gossip! I learn more from 1 day with the women about the goings on in Melako than I do from 1 week with the scouts.
The greatest joy in this visit, is seeing familiar faces of women who had just started with the group 1 year ago and had very little, if any, education or business skills, now writing their own loan documents, keeping business records and moving onto larger enterprises, like shops.
In some of the more remote areas, very few had ever seen or met a white person (and trust me I don't exactly blend into the environment) and I remember the children and women rubbing my arms to see if the white would come off and if I was black underneath!!
After seeing this beadwork the first time, I thought there must be a way to sell this back at Werribee Zoo and help support the women and their trade. So Rachel Lowry, our spectacular Community Conservation Manager, developed our "Beads for Wildlife Trade Campaign", selling Melako beadwork through Werribee Open Range Zoo, to help support these fantastic women. The double bonus is that the more beadwork the women sell, the less they rely on livestock as an income. The less livestock there is in Melako, the more room there is for wildlife. Doesn't get any better than that!
The staff of our shop at Werribee Open Range Zoo were so excited about this way of supporting our sister community in Melako that they have started writing to 2 of the women in Melako to see how the beadwork being sold here in Australia helps their lives in Kenya. (please take a look at our community page to get to know our friends in Melako and get regular updates on their lives).

December 2, 2009

Being back here in good old safe and wonderful Australia, its easy to forget how fragile life can be. After 3 years of drought, and losing all their livestock, the income earned from the beadwork has been, for some families, the only thing between them and possible starvation. I find that to be almost overwhelming.

So here is my blog request to you:
Go to our Beads for Wildlife page and buy a beautiful piece of Christmas beadwork, and help support our friends in Melako and save wildlife at the same time.

Speak to you soon.
Kwaheri! ( goodbye)
Brooke