Maendeleo Ya Wanawake's Legacy in the History of Kenya’s Women’s Movement with Mereso Agina.

On this episode of the Elders Podcast, the veteran social worker and community organizer, Mrs. Mereso Agina joins us to discusses her forty-year career in community development and women’s empowerment in Kenya. She talks about the legacy of Maendeleo Ya Wanawake (MYWO), a women's movement that started in 1952. Her story journeys through her life – transitioning into community development work, fighting to change the culture of FGM in communities in Kenya, influencing the government to have better maternity leave, breastfeeding and housing allowances for women, and advocating for the 2/3 gender rule in the Constitution of Kenya. She reflects on how MYWO was a key player in advancing the women’s movement in Kenya – as a powerful grassroots and national movement uniting women all over Kenya influencing policy changes in water, maternal and infant health and education whose benefits are being enjoyed to date.