Turkana county government, through the department of culture, has trained residents to improve their bead-making skills for the production of quality products.
The department held a 10-day ushanga training workshop in Katilia ward in Turkana East subcounty.
At least 20 women have been trained on skills including new design creation, tools and equipment usage, quality finishing, colour coordination and pricing.
Tourism and culture executive George Emoru encouraged the group to ensure they make good products so that they attract both local and foreign buyers.
“This will aid in making the products more competitive in the market, thus uplifting residents livelihoods. The women have developed their own unique design called Katilia design with a theme “Wear Our Story", that encourages everyone to buy and wear their products,” he said.
Emoru said the culture directorate was constructing curio shops across the county where residents can sell their products.
He said the Turkana Cultural Festival (Tobong’uLore) will also give them an opportunity to showcase their beadwork.
“These value addition skills will enable our women to prosper as they will engage in quality production of traditional and modern beaded items for the local and international markets,” Emoru said.
He urged the women to register a cooperative group to seek funding and capacity building support from government agencies and donors.
Dorcas Apem, a resident of Katilia and one of the participants, said the new skills learnt in the training will improve her beaded products and fetch better prices.
“The training has been of great value, I have learnt new skills that will go along way in improving my products,” she said.
She has urged the directorate of culture to roll out more trainings to reach more people in the community as a source of empowering them to boost their incomes.
The workshop coordinator Lemmy Ejorewoia from directorate of culture said the group was quick in learning and adopting the new skills. He said they possessed a high creative ability.
The ushanga initiative, done in collaboration with the State Department of Culture, seeks to empower pastoral women to take up beadwork as an economic activity.
-Edited by SKanyara