The one-sheet advertisement encouraged the farm’s workers to apply for a training course in Fairtrade’s Women’s School of Leadership. Makena, who had experienced some difficult personal setbacks, applied for one of the student positions and was eventually selected.

In the 10-month training she learned skills that improved her performance at work but more importantly her self-worth and self-confidence grew exponentially. “I realised there was still light in me and there was more that I could do,” said Makena who worked on the farm with her headphones on in an attempt to block out everything and everyone.

After her training Makena was inspired, and that’s when she applied for a supervisor position at Longonot, a Fairtrade-certified farm since 2005, Makena was called in for a final interview  - the only woman in the group made up of five men. “I did my best to convince them that I was the right person for the job,”  she said.

Longonot’s management was convinced, and since 2023 Makena is one of the farm’s supervisors and leads a team of flower workers.

Today, on International Women’s Day, we celebrate women like Makena who have not only  reinvented themselves for a better future but are also giving back to their communities by helping women to understand and advocate for their rights.

Disparities on flower farms are rampant due to low awareness of gender issues. The fact is that men mostly hold management positions, leading to imbalance in representation, wages, and gender norms. Sexual harassment is widespread, particularly affecting women. With women comprising the majority of workers, adopting strategies to support women's advancement and gender-sensitive policies is crucial to address these issues effectively.

That’s where the Women’s School of Leadership comes in. Thanks to funding from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), the Women’s School of Leadership, which was first piloted for Hired Labor in Ethiopia in 2019, moved into Kenya, with a focus on flower farms, including Longonot near Lake Naivasha.

In Phase 1, the programme’s 61 students, 43 of whom were female, including Makena, participated in 10 modules that included lessons on topic such as human rights, gender equality, and leadership. The program gave participants systematic knowledge development, and after completing each module they were required to implement what they learned in the field or on the job.

For example, Makena explained that after the module on income diversification she went back to her farm and shared with her co-workers how an alternative income source could provide stability. Since then, some of the flower farm workers diversified their incomes; some are making liquid soaps and other selling fish they are catching from Lake Naivasha. 

In Phase 2, 40 trainees from 10 flower farms, reaching 1,600 workers, will participate. Phase 2 will run until 2027.

“We see the benefits. We know this works, and that is why we want to institutionalise the Women’s School of Leadership. We want to run it across all products and throughout Africa,” said Dr. Susan Limisi, Gender Coordinator at Fairtrade Africa.

Limisi added that it would be beneficial to work with other institutions who could help the Women’s School of Leadership grow and also make it more impactful. The fact is, she explained, that the problems women face are not only issues on Fairtrade certified farms but are unfortunately systemic and they also affect women outside of our producers.

But there are challenges, and the biggest is funding. To expand the number of participants and further contextualise the Women’s School of Leadership more resources are needed. Plus, if the programme were to grow there are costs also associated with trainers and logistics.

“We see the impact and that’s why we will continue to march forward,” Limisi said. “We are so proud of these women. We say that women make the difference, and the evidence is clear with the training these women have received.”

Makena added that she’s far from done. What’s next? She wants to keep interacting with female employees in different organisations to share her knowledge, and she hopes to go back to school and study community development.