Welcome to Barwuor Women's 

Kenyan women, especially those who reside in the rural villages face enormous challenges and most of them are denied their basic human rights. They are profoundly affected by the country’s deteriorating economic situation, deepening poverty and disease. The HIV/AIDS pandemic exacerbates this situation, as women bear most of the health, economic and social consequences of the pandemic.

In Kenya, the virus infects 2.5 million of the population and about 500 people die everyday of the disease. This situation leaves countless of widowed women with the responsibility to take care of orphaned children and sick members of their families, which of course, they neither receive recognition for nor compensation.

West Kadem Location, Migori District, is one of the areas in Kenya that has seriously been devastated by the HIV/AIDS virus. The disease has ravaged through most villages like bush fire, and once lively homesteads are now mere graveyards. This situation has been exacerbated by the cultural practices of the community. Wife inheritance is a culture that is deeply rooted among the Luo community, and has been found to be the major cause of the rapid spread of the virus among the community. Due to poverty and economic difficulties, these widowed women resort to being inherited by men who they know little about their HIV/AIDS status, in the hope of sustaining and providing for their many orphaned children.

It is in line with the above issues that BWC seeks to address the following:

i)                   To empower widowed women to realize economic security and independence by training them on skills that will enable them generate income and provide for their children.

ii)                 Promoting the enjoyment by women of all human rights, by championing a rights-based approach to the human and economic impact of HIV/AIDS on their lives, and working towards ending the culture of wife inheritance.

iii)              Guidance and counseling.

BWC was founded in the 2000 as a women group in West Kadem Location. It was a forum where women of the area met once in a week to address issues affecting their community such as domestic violence and teenage pregnancy among their daughters. This was an informal grouping with no economic benefits to the members, and women had no specific meeting place, as they went round in turns to members’ homes.

As years passed by, it was not hard to notice that most of the women in the group were becoming widows, especially from the HIV/AIDS scourge, and many of them had huge responsibilities to take care of. The author of this proposal (Project Director) was born and bred in this area and has witnessed the difficulties faced by these women. It is in line with these issues that an idea to make the group more economically viable and to benefit the widows was born. This is a first step to formalize the group and to seek initial funding of the project.

The project mission is therefore, to economically empower widowed women in West Kadem location by equipping them with necessary skills that will enable them to be economically independent

The project seeks to achieve the above mission by training the women in various practical skills such as dressmaking. The Project will establish a center fully equipped with 20 sawing machines for the start. They will be able to make and sell various designs, and thus benefit from the proceeds.

The project thus focuses on widowed women, especially those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS.

The structure of governance of the group is organized into two levels i.e. top level, which comprises of the project director and project coordinator. These are strategic level positions and are responsible for the strategic decision making for the project.

The second level of organization is the medium level of management that comprises of the center assistant and the project evaluator. The Centre assistant will work together with the project Coordinator in implementing the decisions made at the top level.

The project will be fully run by widowed women, apart from the Project Director, who will act as the project advisor. The group members unanimously elected the women in their various leadership positions.

As the first group of its kind in the location, the group has a huge responsibility of addressing political, social, cultural and economical issues that affect the community. First and foremost, the politicians from the area, who are mainly men, have not adequately addressed women issues. They have failed from time to time to address the plight of women in the area, who by a matter of fact form the majority voters in the area. BWC will seek to bridge this gap by championing the enjoyment of human rights by all women. The group will vehemently address issues such as wife inheritance, domestic violence and teenage pregnancy.

BWC will also lobby for the election of women candidates to parliament, as the group believes only women understand women issues.