Rebecca Lolosoli is the founder and matriarch of Umoja village, an all women community located in the Samburu District of Kenya. Umoja village provides a safe space for the semi-nomadic Samburu women escaping rape (and the exile that often follows), abuse, female genital mutilation, forced marriage, and other injustices. Traditional bead work has become a consistent revenue-producing activity for the community to sustain and support the sheltered women. Today, sales from the women’s bead work provide income for school tuition for the children, literacy training and adult education for the women, and capital improvements to the village.

The beaded necklaces, cuffs, headdresses and earrings are traditionally worn by the tribal women during ceremonies and represent such social markers as marital status, age, social standing and wealth. Samburu girls are given beaded necklaces by admirers, which they wear, one on top of the other around their necks. Traditionally, when a girl has enough of these necklaces to support her chin, she is believed to be old enough to be married.

Supported by Bridge for Africa in 2009