About 26 years ago I was wondering, being interested in leather and beads, how I could incorporate the skills of the Maasai women into making a product, or products that would interest Kenya and the rest of the world. 

 

We set up in a very small village with a women’s group living on the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro.  Every couple of weeks I would drive down a long dusty road to meet with the group, taking in their work and handing out more to them.  Very slowly the quality of their work improved. 

 

After about 6 or seven years I moved to Nairobi and was forced to find more women’s’ groups living within the environs of Nairobi.  

 

Over the years we, together with the women, and all the others who contribute to the work, have managed to establish exports globally.

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Along with the mamas,  we buy our buckles from a man living just outside Nairobi, whom hand casts the buckles out of recycled brass.  Another group of men living again just outside Nairobi are responsible for putting together the dog collars and belts. 

 

We have a central workshop based in Karen, where production, coordination, managing and exporting take place.