The Beginning

In 1998, a group of 12 women from the Seguku village met to discuss how they could tackle the social and economic problems that affected many of the families across the village.  The primary problems that had been identified across families included:

HIV/AIDS – Many  women had been widowed because their husbands had died from HIV/AIDS.  Hence, some of the women had AIDS while others tested positive for HIV.

Family Structure – HIV/AIDS had placed strain on the family structure.

Increases in domestic violence led to broken homes.

There was growing moral decadence among orphaned and unguided youth.

Financial – Families were experiencing many financial struggles: such as paying medical bills, and school fees for the growing numbers children orphaned in the families affected with HIV/AIDS.

Lowered household income because bread winners were always sick.

Inability to purchase necessary food supplies for the family.

The Creation of Seguku Women’s Association

To begin tackling these social and economic problems, the women formed Seguku Women’s Association (SeWA) in order to begin planning a long lasting sustainable development strategy for the women and youth in the community.  Other women were invited to join SeWA and to help organize solutions. The group met regularly and talked about solutions to the problems identified by the members.  SeWA membership was later opened to individual women, organized women’s groups, and entire families beyond the Seguku Village.

SeWA was faced with a major challenge to find lasting solutions to the identified problems.  One of the solutions identified was to develop income- generating projects. Some members of Seguku Women’s Association had skills in making handcrafted items. This gave birth to the SeWA Art & Craft Center, with a goal to bring together members, families, and groups with Arts and Crafts skills to engage in productive work by creating finished Arts and Crafts to be sold.  Through the years, SeWA Art & Craft has contributed to home improvement for members amidst the challenge of developing a stable market for these Arts and Crafts.

After selling the items, the proceeds were channeled directly to the craftspeople, leaving little to sustain SeWA Art & Craft Center.  A solution was sought, and on October 7, 1999,  SeWA began a Tailoring and Weaving project.  The Tailoring and Weaving Unit employs eight members and those proceeds help purchase materials needed for the Art & Craft cooperative.  In 2007, SeWA members expanded, beginning an Animal Husbandry project to raise and sell poultry and pigs.  Due to the threat of competition from other producers at national levels and neighboring countries (I.e. Kenya and Tanzania), in 2008, SeWA created a website to share information about their work and created an online store for SeWA Art & Craft.  SeWA provides support to all members in their entrepreneurial ventures through training, business planning, development, and marketing.

Objectives

Objectives of the Seguku Women’s Association (SeWA):

To mobilize, train and empower women and youth economically and socially through skills development in order to enable them to play their rightful role in society and in the development of their families, communities and nation at large.

To sensitize and train women and youth to their capacity in the development of income-generating activities towards self-sufficiency.

To empower women, youth groups, and individuals involved in art and craft, in the making, designing, and quality of the items; and in the gathering, collecting, and marketing of such items for the benefit of the members.

To mobilize the technical and financial assistance suitable for different industrial activities for the benefit of the members of SeWA and the communities.

To put resources, products and services together in a pool, in order to attract a bigger market of selling and community participation.

To enhance community participation in the development of income generating activities in order to up lift the standards of living for members and their families.

To do all such other things as may be deemed incidentally or conductive to the attainment of the above objectives or any of them.