First Lady Rachel Ruto on Friday, March 17, narrated how an ordinary woman inspired her journey to found the organisation Joyful Women (JoyWo).
While speaking at a breakfast meeting in which she hosted County First Spouses together with President William Ruto at State House, the First Lady explained that the concept was conceived back in 1997.
She told County First Spouses that simple ideas can build great initiatives which are life-changing to ordinary people.
"It is not something out of the norm. It is something that you have always desired to do. It is the problem that you see in society and always desired to solve.
"I'm reminded of that day when I had gone to help my husband campaign in the year 1997 as a young girl like some of you who are seated here today," Mama Rachel noted.
She detailed how President Ruto's first campaign as a Member of Parliament exposed her to the reality of human suffering.
The two, Ruto and Rachel, met poverty-stricken people who they vowed to return and elevate from the state of despair in which they were living.
"I met these women who were seated by the roadside, and one of them had a broad smile but did not have shoes.
"I wondered how she left her house without shoes. I then wondered about her children, whether they had eaten or not.
"I quickly got an inspiration in my heart, and promised that - should GOD enable my husband to be elected a Member of Parliament for Eldoret North, I would come back and do something with the women," the first lady narrated.
Mama Rachel, as she is popularly known, was only 27 years old at the time. She returned to the village after her husband won the Eldoret North seat, and thought of how to help the women as the wife of an MP.
"I kept wondering, and I kept talking to people, because, for me, I was looking for sustainability for those women," she noted.
After a while, she decided to establish a banking system that was particularly meant to lift poor women from their financial challenges.
"And so quickly, I called for a meeting with other women leaders, and I met the women under a tree and we started talking to them about table banking," she stated.
Later on August 31, 2009, Mama Rachel founded Joyful Women Organisation which is currently serving thousands of women across the country.
"It was named so because of that one woman that did not have shoes, had not had breakfast, yet had a good smile, just to say that sometimes in life, you may not have everything, but nobody can take that away from you," she noted.
Mama Rachel reinforced the important role of the first spouses in uplifting their communities from poverty and other societal problems.
The First Lady asked the county first ladies to work together to come up with ways to support governors and their governments.
She also urged them to adopt a forest in their respective counties as part of the Office of the First Lady's objective to plant 500 million trees and lead in promoting financial literacy among women in their counties through table banking, supported by Joyful Women Organization's County-based Economic Empowerment Officers.
As a matter of priority, Mama Rachel proposed a food exchange program where first spouses from counties with food sufficiency would support their fellow Kenyans facing drought.
The First Lady explained that through Mama Doing Good and its partners, the Office of the First Lady will offer mentorship and technical assistance to initiatives started by the county's first spouses.
