Circles Educate Girls and Women

A Story from Kenya
By Lauren Oliver, PhD and founder of CircleCulture

 I want to tell about an experience I had this past year that demonstrated for me the power of circles to support women in very trying circumstances.

In February 2020, I traveled to Kenya just before the pandemic shut most travel down. My friend Peggy had researched online and located several wild animal preserves for us to visit.  Another friend Ann reminded us about an all-women community near Mt. Kenya, founded as a refuge for girls and women who have been abused and often ostracized from their communities. We had learned about this village when we attended the UN Commission on the Status of Women as part of the Millionth Circle, a group of women promoting the use of circle process to shift the culture from patriarchy to partnership. 

While we were visiting Mt. Kenya, we tried to find this all-female village. After multiple inquiries, I  finally located a driver who could take me to a village called Umoja, which means unity. That’s where I met Lucy JiJale Naipashu. She gave me a tour and introduced me to other village women.  I saw the traditional dome-shaped houses they were building:  walls of sticks woven and packed with clay; roofs of clay, sometimes covered with branches, or cloth. Usually with two small rooms, each house would serve a mother and her children.

My tour included the school next door, with wonderful recitations by young children of 7 who were learning three languages: Swahili, English, and their local tongue. 

And I heard the story of their 44 goats and sheep which had recently been stolen by another tribal group. The women had relied on goat milk to feed their children, and this disaster threatened their survival. I was glad to make a donation and the village women danced for me before I departed.

I asked Lucy (then 19 years years old) if she had finished school. No, her mother lacked the money for tuition for her final year. Her only brother was able to finish school, but neither she nor her sister. Now her brother had a job. But lacking education, Lucy could not find a job. She hoped to open a food stall. But first, she wanted to get more goats for the village—enough to provide milk for the women and children.

In the next few months, I kept thinking about Lucy’s wish for goats and decided to start CircleCulture’s Umoja Goat Project. Women from the Millionth Circle and from Southern Oregon Pachamama Alliance were generous, and we were able to provide the funds for Lucy to purchase 12 goats.  Soon those goats birthed young kids. And with the kids came milk for the human children.

The story of Umoja is a longer, more complex one. Let me just say that Lucy had to move a few months later with her mother and small son Jeremy. So our Goat Project group helped her build a home. Lucy, in the meantime, had started her own circle of women. While many of these women, like Lucy, did not have money for tuition to complete school, in their circle they share information, mutual support and plans for their future. 

Recently these 23 women have built 11 traditional homes and most of the circle members are living together now in a small village called Namnyak, meaning young mothers women’s group. Yes, now they need goats. We hope in the future to provide school tuition to help several complete their education. But now, in circle, these women are helping each other with significant mutual aid, exchanging knowledge, cooperating in community building, and assuming leadership and practicing self-governance. They are working on a collective way to sell their jewelry. And they are planning an outreach education effort to reduce Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in their locale.

So, you may ask, what does this have to do with the Southern Oregon Pachamama Alliance, the local organization that introduced Project Drawdown to our community? It turns out “Educating Girls” and “Family Planning” are “no regrets” climate solutions  identified by Project Drawdown to benefit society as well as the environment. Drawdown Senior Writer Katharine Wilkinson explains, “If we gain ground on gender equity, we gain ground in global warming.” Our support of women and girls anywhere makes a difference.

My expertise is in creating circles and offering tools for cooperative work to sustain effective circles. I was impressed by how much Lucy and her friends were able to accomplish by working together. At the same time, those of us who have more resources can help by making donations to women like Lucy who are doing all they can to sustain their families and communities. 

Southern Oregon Pachamama Alliance recognizes that we can empower girls and women through education and the formation of circles for mutual support among women and girls. We would love to hear from you about your interest in the many ways of supporting projects like this. Please feel free to contact me by email if you would like to learn more about CircleCulture, or perhaps donate to Lucy and her village for goats and food during this ongoing pandemic, or purchase some jewelry. 

In circle together,
Lauren Oliver