Post by Cynthia Chebet
18th of April every year marks ‘World Heritage Day’ where people get to visit monuments, sites and also promote sustainable tourism; which is the concept of visiting a place as a tourist and making a positive impact on the environment, society or economy.
Twala Women’s Group, a cultural heritage manyatta is one of the projects that IMPACT prides itself in working with. In accordance to IMPACT’s mandate of ensuring growth of livelihoods and economic empowerment among indigenous communities, we have been able to facilitate a few projects within the group including developing of a business plan for the women, setting up of the beehive project, facilitating an Aloe Vera project, promoting the growth of the Maasai culture through bead sales and facilitating the sponsorship of girls’ education on behalf of sponsors.
Twala Women’s Group is located in Ilpolei, Laikipia North sub county. The group started which was started by local Maasai women prides itself of 212 members all of whom take shifts in manning the centre. The centre has a beads shed where the women make beautiful bracelets and the famous Maasai necklaces and household decor. The centre also has a conference room which visitors and teams to the centre can hire for meetings and cottages which offer accommodation to visitors of the facility at a fee.
The facility has since managed to offer financial stability to the women by enabling them to enhance their income and through that enabling them to put local girls through school and in turn this has offered them equal opportunities to their male counterparts. The facility has also exposed them to various opportunities including placing them as a strategic point for tourism.
Aside from that, you can visibly see a much stronger sense of community and sisterhood among the women which has been attributed to the presence of the centre in their community.
IMPACT continues to pride itself in ensuring continued growth of livelihoods and economic empowerment among indigenous communities.
Twala Cultural Manyatta Brochure: