Women of Our World – Katy Leakey

Katy Leakey with husband Philip

The Leakey Collection
LeakeyCollection.com
LeakeyLife.com
Countries frequented: Kenya, USA, UK

Meet the incredible Katy Leaky. Born in CA in 1954, she has been an artist all her life. Katy’s artistic style infuses a unique cultural anthropological bent into fine art. She has always loved studying what made us who we are by looking at ancient cultures which are still functioning today.

Katy had once set up an expedition in the uncharted territory of the Peruvian Amazon to study cultures there. Remarkably, she became a hostage and had to arrange her own escape. She ate grubs for dinner because that was all there was to eat. Large, 3” long, fatty, maggots “at least we roasted them” Katy explains. In her own words, she has had “many wonderful adventures that could fill a book”.

So what kind of business venture would spark the interest of such a diverse and fascinating woman, and why?

The Leakey Collection was born out of sheer necessity. In 2002, at the end of a terrible drought in Kenya Katy Leakey and her husband, Philip Leakey, were supporting over 100 families who had been left to fend for themselves when their husbands were forced to move any surviving cattle in search of green grassing land elsewhere. Katy explains: “The cost of food, school fees and medical attention was more than we could sustain so we looked for an enterprise in which the women could earn an income”. The product that evolved was Zulugrass,¬ jewelry made from grass of all things.

Environmentally sustainable, it is harvested by hand and easy to produce for the women. Zulugrass is one simple strand of jewelry beaded with colorfully dyed grass and Check glass beads; contemporary to meet the larger global market place. The single strands are then combined to make all sorts of pieces of jewelry from necklaces to bracelets, to hair-ties, anklets and more.

But to Katy and Philip the Leakey Collection is about more than just selling beautiful jewelry. They actually live in a tent among the Maasai in Southern Kenya and give 10 percent of the gross from their business back to the Maasai communities in 3 ways:

1) Medical: A women¹s Health Initiative which teaches women midwife skills, simple health care and preventative measures.

2) Education: Libraries are set up in local schools and they hire teachers in hopes of lowering the student to teacher ratio from 75 to 30.

3) Infrastructure: Katy and Philip have built roads so people can access towns and medical facilities, and they have provided cell phones so there is no more need to walk for several days to make contact with local towns.

The endeavors of the Leakey Collection have not gone unnoticed. They have been chosen as one of only 12 finalists in the annual BBC World Challenge (see below for link to cast your vote!)

The most difficult part of working in Kenya is the fact that all the work is done in such a remote rural area. Katy and Philip had to make all the roads into the workstations. It is a grueling 6 hour drive to get any supplies that can’t be made in the bush. They have learned to develop their own technologies for production since they are so far from a large town. The work force is limited to the local people in the area and many are not trained for the jobs they most desperately need, like accounting, organizational skills, operations management, secretarial, etc.

Despite the many roadblocks and hardships, Katy contends the best part of working abroad is definitely the people: “Getting to know the wonderful women and a new culture. One that is so enthusiastic about learning, so passionate about making a better life for their families and so welcoming to us”.

One particular cultural difference Katy observed is that in “some”, (NOT ALL), areas in Maasailand, Kenya, wives having lovers is tolerated as long as it is not flaunted to the husband. As it was explained to Katy; the custom of arranged marriage was, long ago, balanced for the women by turning a blind eye to their need for “love” among their contemporary age groups. This fact was brought to light one day while Katy was beading with the women they asked her why she had left her family and come so far. Katy explained that she had come because she loved her husband. It took about 10 minutes to translate this and finally, when her response was understood, it was met with uproarious laughter. Their response was; “Silly woman, you don’t marry for love. You have lovers for that!”

Katy states that without a doubt the greatest satisfaction comes from seeing the Maasai women improve their lives and those of their families; to watch them gain economic stability and to see the enterprises they create as a result of economic opportunity! “It makes all the trials and hard work worthwhile.”

I asked Katy where she would encourage every American woman to spend one year in. As expected, she said Kenya. “I think everyone would love to spend a year in Kenya. The people are loving, warm, hospitable, polite, and enterprising. We women learn so much from each other and there is much to learn from the women here in Kenya.”

VOTE NOW!!
The Leakey Collection has been chosen as one of the 12 finalists in the annual BBC World Challenge. This promotion is to bring awareness to eco-social responsible companies around the world. The winner will receive a cash award, which should they win they will put towards building a hydro-electric plant here in Kenya for the Maasai. This plant will be here for generations to come and will power the business school that we will build to promote the development of rural enterprise around the world.

Please review all contestants and vote for your favorite. We hope it is Leakey but you decide.
BBC World Challenge: Leakey Collection

Voting is open until November 21st 2008.