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Violet with her colleagues at workPhoto: UN Women/Alex KamweruThe story of Kenyan caregivers’empowerment goes to theheart of some of the issuesof exclusion that affect manyfacets of women’s lives aroundthe world.Working with small-scalefarmers in western Kenya inthe late 1990s, Violet saw thatmale farmers had the power to take out loans or benefitfrom agricultural extension schemes, while women weremore likely to be found in the fields, working hard, with littlesupport and no role in decision-making.She also noticed that many women in her community weredying in childbirth, and that the response of the nearbyhospital was to blame traditional birth attendants.“Caregivers strengthenthe social fabric becausefor us…health beginsin the community”traditional birth attendants intheir outreach programmesinstead of ostracizing them.The hospital agreed to workwith traditional birth attendantsto facilitate mobile clinics forwomen in the villages. Sincemany of the attendants wereilliterate, they were unable tofill out the hospital’s paperwork so Violet agreed to be theirsecretary.It was the first step on a journey that would lead Violet to formthe Shibuye Community Health Workers. Since the group’sinception, it has expanded its work to include other healthissues such as measles outbreaks, diarrhoea, and providingadvice on sanitation, good nutrition and family planning.Shaken by the death of a local woman, Violet madecontact with the local hospital and asked them to includeThen, as Kenya’s AIDS pandemic took grip in the mid-1990s, caregivers found themselves under increasing