The Kenya Gender Festival is inspired by and modeled on the bi-annual Gender Festival organized in Dar es Salaam by the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP) and FemAct. The Kenya Gender Festival is an open forum bringing together many organizations and individuals who care about and are committed to gender rights.
The 2005 Tanzania Gender Festival featured the Daughters of Mumbi Global Resource Center Executive Director, Njoki Njehu, as a keynote speaker. The four-day festival was inspirational and planted the idea of getting more Kenyans to share in the experience.
In 2007 the Daughters of Mumbi Global Resource Center organized a 12-person delegation to the Tanzania Gender Festival in Dar es Salaam. The delegation’s participation was made possible by funds raised at a House Party hosted by long-time friends and supporters of the network, Marjan & Andy Shallal, at their home in Washington, DC. The delegation of 9 women and 3 men travelled to Dar es Salaam for the four-day event, which each of them described as a life-changing experience.
The 2007 Tanzania Gender Festival featured fellow Kenyan, Muthoni Wanyeki, Executive Director of the Kenya Human Rights Commission, as a keynote speaker. She was also inspired by the experience and saw the potential for Kenya. For those at the 2007 Tanzania Gender Festival, the promise of what is possible and achievable in the process of organizing a Gender Festival was obvious and clearly enormous. The seed of a Gender Festival in Kenya began to germinate.
When the experiences of the 2007 Gender Festival were shared with Kenyan gender rights activists and the idea of a Gender Festival in Kenya proposed, it was embraced and a year-long process commenced. On June 3rd the seed blossoms with the commencement of Day One of the first ever Kenya Gender Festival.
Please join over 60 Daughters of Mumbi network members, and women from across the country, at the first ever Kenya Gender Festival: Wednesday, June 3 - Friday, June 5 at Nairobi Railways Club (next to Uhuru Park).
SUPPORT the participation and work of Daughters of Mumbi Global Resource Center in the 2009 Kenya Gender Festival process. Make a secure online donation today at: http://www.daughtersofmumbi.org/donate.html
The Daughters of Mũmbi Global Resource Center is an independent, non-partisan, non-ethnic network inspired by values drawn from four meanings of Mũmbi in the Gĩkũyũ language and culture:
Creator -
connecting to the environment which must 'include human beings as a species worth saving';
Clan -
pledging to build united, just, & caring communities and relationships at all levels;
First Mother -
honoring women's roles in anchoring family & community and
linking to our respective diverse cultural roots; and
Potter -
recognizing dignity in the work of our hands, especially women's work and creativity.