Madaraka is the chairlady of Amkeni Women Group, located in Chwaka Kwale County, in the coastal region of Kenya. She moved there in 2012 after her husband was transferred to work in the area. While living there, she came across injustices against women that did not please her. It is the norm in the area that when a woman loses her husband, she is chased away with the younger children while the older ones remain behind with the husband’s relatives. The younger ones are taken away after they are grown. After her encounter and stories about such cases, she started talking with women in the area. Her goal was to empower them so that were are able to stand up for themselves and fend for their families, so that they were not vulnerable in such circumstances.
She has always been a business woman. When she moved, she started looking around for opportunities to do business in her new home. In her interactions with other women, the area chief recognized her hard work and requested her to mentor women in the area. This is how Amkeni Women Group was formed. At first, she met resistance from some women in the area who have a habit of viewing strangers with suspicion. She tackled this by telling them, “a visitor is welcomed, then find out what they have in they have to share with you before you dismiss them.” With this, she taught them how to make fresh juice and ‘mabuyu’ a candy made from baobab tree fruit. This earned her the title “Mgeni Mzima.” In the community, this means, ‘the visitor who had the guts to speak out.’
1st chicken coop
2nd chicken coop
Amkeni Women Group has 22 members. They were trained by Pangea in 2013 and thereafter ventured a poultry keeping project, with each member purchasing 10 hens with financing from Pangea. It is from this project that Madaraka started rearing chickens in bigger numbers both for meat and eggs. Poultry rearing training facilitated by Pangea enabled her to take good care of her chickens and turn it into an income generating activity. Proceeds from sales enabled her to expand her chicken coop and put electricity in her house. When her group got a revolving fund from Pangea, she used the funds and her savings to buy a freezer for her fresh juice business and a water tank for both commercial and home use. She is grateful to Pangea and says, “[The] Pangea [Network] has assisted me to grow my chicken business and start other businesses on the side. My income has grown since 2013 and I am able to contribute to caring for my family’s needs.”
She is not the breadwinner, but through her hard work she is able to help bring bread home. Madaraka did not go to high school due to lack of school fees. Her biggest goal in life is to see her 3 children through school. Her husband is her biggest cheerleader. He was able to take her for secretarial training and other short courses and has always encouraged her to pursue high school education, something that she hopes to do in the next few years.
She encourages young people in her community to take education seriously. She has a heart of gold. When 2 girls in her village lacked school fees to go to high school, she rallied her husband and her group to help them enroll in high school. She mentors girls in the village, so when they close school, they just want to be by her side. She is a role model for women in her community.
