By: Nick Scott
This year the Enactus chapter of UPEI initiated a brand new project committed to promoting community development on an international scale. Luckily for me, I was asked to head the Unity project which entails working towards a partnership with the Village of Unity in Samburu County, Kenya.
The inhabitants of this women-only village originally hail from the village of Umoja (another exclusively woman’s village) which was founded in the 1990’s by several women who were victims of rape and sought to create a home where women were safe from abuse. Gradually, more women came to the village as many were victims of domestic violence, rape, genital mutilation and other such injustices. They brought their children and as a community they thrived through the craft of their intricate and colourful Kazuri bead jewelry (as shown in the photo above).
In 2011, around 30 women and their children left the village of Umoja and founded their own village a few kilometres away; the village of Unity.
What our project hopes to accomplish in its goals is to first form a friendship with the women of Unity and learn from them about life in Kenya, as we hope to impart to them our own experiences here in Canada. In addition, we intend to aid them in their entrepreneurial goals. The UPEI Enactus has already secured a laptop with the intent that their goods will be marketed to a wider clientele, and is in the process of securing sponsorship to ensure that internet service is paid for . In terms of communication, we plan on using programs such as Skype and Google Drive to communicate and work together.
It’s an ambitious project, and we (or at least I) am extremely excited to get it started. However, it IS an ambitious project, and we’re going to need a bit more help to get it up and going. It’s not a project that’ll revolutionize the world, but hopefully it’ll make a difference in at least two communities (that of Unity and that of UPEI). Plus, making friends is always fun, especially when you’re separated by about 10,000 kilometres of sea and water!
With that in mind, I hope that you give the project some thought, and if you do happen to be interested, please contact me (Nick Scott) at niscott@upei.ca