From Goat Herder to Seamstress in Northern Kenya: Gaining Financial Stability through Vocational Training

Jane Asimit is a mother of six from the Nakuprat Gotu Community Conservancy in northern Kenya, the country’s most marginalized and under-developed region, with arid and semi-arid lands,  economic instability, and resource-based conflicts. With few occupational options for women and with no education, Jane’s only source of income has been herding goats and selling milk.
 
Despite her lack of schooling, however, Jane has always had a desire to study and learn. In 2021, Jane learned from the conservancy manager about a mobile vocational program, Ujuzi Manyattani (Skills in the Village), that provides three months of hands-on training in masonry, carpentry, motorcycle mechanics, mobile phone mechanics, welding, tailoring, hairdressing, and cookery.
 
Ujuzi Manyattani aims to help young men and women from pastoral communities pursue alternative livelihoods in Northern Rangelands Trust member conservancies. It is one of the key programs implemented by Northern Rangelands Trust Trading (NRTT) through a grant from USAID. The program is part of a larger regional effort to help communities develop economic and climate resilience.

Jane attended the first Ujuzi Manyattani meeting with trepidation. She asked the training coordinator if her lack of education would hurt her eligibility. But he not only encouraged her to enroll, he also predicted she would learn English and gain other knowledge along with vocational skills. “Even if you did not go to school or are unable to write ‘1,’ you will progress and you will learn to write ‘2,’ ” he said.

In June 2021, Jane joined a three-month tailoring class. Upon graduation, she received a manual sewing machine and launched a seamstress business from her house. Jane made clothes and school uniforms for her community – and her first big break was a 400-uniform order for a local school. This major effort took two months, and the proceeds Jane earned enabled her to transfer her son from a local public school to a private school in Isiolo town.
 
Today, Jane’s success continues to grow. Since completing the Ujuzi Manyattani program, she no longer herds goats and sells milk. She is now financially independent and is able to provide for her six children. She can afford to pay the school fees that so often burden families. She continues to receive large orders for school and church uniforms, and her tailor shop is no longer in her own home. In March 2023, Jane opened a shop called Mama Simiyu Tailoring and Dress Making at the Ngare Mara Center and has since mentored four young women in tailoring. Looking ahead, she plans to purchase four electric sewing machines to reduce labor time and boost output.
 
“Because USAID has joined hands with them and made an impact in their world, many women and youth are now independent.” Jane encourages other young women who lack formal education to pursue vocational training programs such as Ujuzi Manyattani. “I tell them it impacts their family as it creates work and brings in resources,” she said.  And she counts herself as proof that these programs help strengthen vulnerable communities.