FAO.org

In the heart of Tanzania's Maasai community, Grace Scorey is rewriting the narrative of gender inequality and transforming the lives of women and girls. From a young age, Grace was determined to create a better future for women and girls in her community. This set her on a trailblazing path of education and activism. 

The birth of an activist 

"I grew up in a Maasai community in Tanzania,” said Grace, “where traditional social norms mean that it is often hard for women and girls like me to receive an education. However, that motivated me to work hard at school and, with the help of a scholarship, earn a degree in social administration.”  Following her studies, Grace married and started her own family, leaving her contented. However, her desire to create a better future for women still burned inside her.

“In my community I have witnessed widows forced to marry their husbands’ brothers and women who were maltreated,” Grace said. “I wanted to change the narrative.”

So, putting her education into practice, she joined the Pastoral Women's Council (PWC), a non-profit organisation based in Northern Tanzania dedicated to promoting gender equality and community development among Maasai women and girls. The PWC has over 6 500 members, 75 per cent of whom are women and youth. It works to empower marginalized groups, including single mothers, orphans, widows, and people with disabilities. 

One of the PWC's most remarkable achievements is providing more than 1 000 scholarships to underserved girls, enabling them to pursue their dreams in fields ranging from medicine to teaching. PWC's efforts have shattered longstanding societal norms, which include restricting women from inheriting their fathers' land and forcing girls into early marriages. In Tanzania, only 7.4 percent of women own a house alone[1]. Women who do own a house are less likely than men to have formal documentation of their ownership, and women also have a weaker knowledge of how to defend their rights due to a lack of education[2].

In her work, Grace uses innovative tools like Securing Your Family Future (SYFF), which gives women and girls the information needed to challenge these entrenched social norms. SYFF trains women and girls in vital skills, including joint decision-making, writing wills, registering marriages and lands, effective communication, and active participation in local council meetings. By instilling these skills early on, Grace’s organisation is creating future champions who will continue to challenge norms and increase pastoralist women’s resilience. 

In 2022, Grace and her organisation provided 104 girls with educational scholarships and established 55 functional micro-credit savings and loans groups, the majority of beneficiaries being women. She assisted in the formation of six new Women’s Rights and Leadership Forums, with a total of 180 members, and supported nine villages to dig boreholes enabling over 14 000 indigenous pastoralist men, women, children and their livestock to access clean water. 

Championing climate change awareness

Women in the Maasai community are the unsung heroes of the forest. They frequently visit the forest to gather resources, provide medical care, and fetch water; but due to climate change, their local environment is undergoing significant changes. Women plant many trees, and their unique position renders them caretakers of the forest, enabling them to report any misdeeds to the village government office. In doing so, they play a large role in forest preservation.

Grace and her colleagues at PWC have raised awareness about environment management and protection in 27 villages around the local area, helping the local community to develop and implement plans to tackle various challenges. These often include the fencing of water source areas and the development of bylaws for effective accountability for action plans developed by the community. With PWC’s help, the Longido District secured funds to develop many water-related projects.

 A legacy of empowerment

Grace has been a member of WeCaN since November 2022, something that has enabled her to build her skills and make connections.

“I have been able to meet and be inspired by other strong women in the group,” she said. “WeCan has helped me connect with colleagues from Tanzania and Kenya, and we have invited each other to meetings.” 

When we asked Grace what she considers to be her greatest achievement in her journey so far, she said: “being a role model in my local community”.  Indeed, she is a source of inspiration and tirelessly supports girls, including those who are pregnant or were forced into early marriages, in returning to school. She counsels women to speak out against domestic violence and provides them with platforms to do so.

Thanks to Grace’s relentless efforts, the Maasai community is witnessing a significant behavioural shift toward women’s engagement in community dialogues and local political forums. Through the PWC, Grace continues to break down barriers, inspire change, and ensure that every woman and girl in her community can exercise their human rights.  Grace Scorey's legacy is one of empowerment, progress, and hope for a brighter future in the Masaai communities.