Bungoma Women Hail Project for Reducing Unpaid Care Work and Ending Gender Violence

By Isabella Maua

Ripple Effect Kenya has been credited by women from Sirisia in Bungoma County for helping to rewrite a lengthy history of a backward culture in which women and girls have been overworked and undervalued for their domestic labour.

In the western region of Kenya, women and girls have been left to do all the house chores in the homestead without being paid or given the respect they deserve for the hard work.

According to Beatrice Were, the project coordinator of the I4RR Project (Scaling Innovations for Reduced and Redistributed Women’s Unpaid Care Work in Smallholder Livestock Farming), the ripple effect has already come up with day care for children and technologies to promote safe nutritious foods for the community and is still giving more knowledge on climate-smart agriculture within the region.

She observes, “The women friendly grass  Panicum Mombasa, popularly known as Siambasa  has helped reduce women workload, increasing  their involvement  in other economic activities.”

Speaking during Farmers’ Field Day at Sirisia this week, Joyce Oyoko, Assistant County Commissioner of Sirisia, applauded the efforts of Ripple Effect, citing its evidence through the kitchen gardens and model farms exhibited by farmers.

“Women and girls have been overburdened in this region because of unreasonable taboos coiled under the umbrella of gender roles; for example, boys are not allowed to enter the kitchen either to help in cooking or washing,” she noted.

Adding that: let’s take an example where a mother has borne only sons; that will mean that she remains a slave in that family for the rest of her life.

She also challenged women to join self-help groups so that they can benefit from helpful projects like Ripple Effect and better their lives.

Some of the women who graced the occasion could not hide their joy as they told the story of redefined gender roles, thanks to the I4RRI4RR project.

Pamela Chebosi, the Chairlady of the Daraja Mungu Self Help Group, attested that since she joined the I4RRI4RR Project at Kibingei, her life has changed, and even her husband, who was violent, has been reformed.

“The new gender roles introduced to us by Ripple Effect have greatly changed my family life. My spouse must occasionally hit me in the Bukusu culture in order for us to survive together, but ever since these trainings were introduced to us, I have not experienced such abuse," Chebosi claimed.

The local village administrator, Lidya Masakari, acknowledged that Ripple Effect had ended gender-based violence, educated the community about traditional customs, erased poverty in the area, and brought in water, sanitation, and hygiene instructions.

Titus Sagala, the country director for Ripple Effect Kenya, accentuated that their greatest achievements will be to ensure farmers make their own organic food, have sufficient nutritious food for themselves, and be able to sell surplus to improve the local economy.

“In order to make this a reality, we collaborate with a variety of partners. At the moment, we are working closely with the county government, sending agroecologists and extension agents to our farmers’ farms to provide high-quality services,” Sagala reiterated.