| At the outset of The
Kikoy Company we realised we would need a group of women
to carry out the knotting of the Kikoys, which is traditionally
done by hand. We decided that this would a good opportunity
to form a group of women in poverty who had little means
by which to support themselves and their families. It is
accepted that rural women contribute 90% of their income
to the family, as opposed to rural men who return as little
as 40%. Taking this research from Women’s World Banking
(WWB) we were encouraged to initiate our group.
Reference: Women’s World Banking www.womensworldbanking.org
In excerpts from the Report of the UN Expert Group on Women
and Finance, chaired by the WWB we learned that: “Around
the world, women's economic positions are adversely affected
by their lack of access to productive
resources. A woman's economic position directly affects her ability
to purchase needed improvements in health, housing and
education. Women
manage household finances in most of the developing world. As more
cash and assets get into the hands of women, most of these
earnings get into
the mouths, medicine and schoolbooks of their children. Increasingly,
women head many households, de facto or de jure, relying on the woman's
earnings as the main or sole source of income for the family. Women
tend to be honest, practical and reliable. Low income women
have heavy productive
and reproductive roles, which keeps many in very small businesses.”
This fuelled our desire to empower a number of women in our region by
offering them this work. The advantage of working for The Kikoy Company
for our group of women is that they are able to carry their work with
them, they can knot the Kikoys at their homes whilst caring for their
families. Each woman collects Kikoys and returns them within their daily
routines, we pay for each piece completed and they have no other demands.
We are delighted that our group has grown to sixteen women, with over
30 children between them. Some have other employment and do this work
in their spare time, and others count on this occupation as their sole
income.
The Kikoy Company is proud to have initiated this group and
are very pleased to pay each women their entitlement every
time they complete
their quota of Kikoys. The work is simple and demands only patience
and dexterity, and therefore there is no added burden for these
women. Our
group has grown from the initial few that started with us and they
get together at our storehouse for tea and to exchange gossip.
This employment
has now become a way of life for the Kikoy Group and the women often
tell us how ‘happy’ they are with the enterprise.
The head of the Group, Rosemary Injete, herself a single mother
with two children, supervises the others as they come and go
and continual
contact is maintained. If there is an emergency, or a problem the women
now have somewhere they can turn to for a loan, or for help with hospital
bills. We keep in touch and ensure their welfare, stories of good luck
and success abound. Rosemary herself has, since the inception of Kikoy,
increased her income twofold and can now buy small luxuries for her
children. This small but steady income has transformed the
lives of the members
of our group and we are delighted that we made this decision as against
the common practice of using ‘sweat’ shops where the workers
are poorly paid for time intensive labour. In turn our empowered group
of women has enabled The Kikoy Company to be able to supply Kikoys
of quality that have truly been lovingly knotted with care!
For further information please visit the womens group website
here
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