Ibulliance: To Lead with a Bead
Sometimes, dreaming big, you have to start with something small. Small as a bead.
Beatrice Namunyak Lempaira grew up in a Masai village in northern Kenya where she had little to own, but much to earn. And what she earned were outstanding grades at school and the confidence of the community trust, which awarded her a full scholarship to Nairobi University to study Economics, becoming the first person from her community to attend college.
Passionate to learn more, Beatrice enrolled at McGill University in Montreal on full scholarship, earning her Masters degree in Anthropology. And then came the remarkable next step, the largest of all, the one so many fail to imagine: she returned home and put her learning to work in the service of her community.
Though her mother had not received an education, Beatrice watched her hands expertly craft the signature bead necklaces which define their community and culture. If women could use those fine generational skills to earn income, she thought, everything would change. Thinking big, she started small.
Beatrice became the Director of BeadWORKS, under the auspices of the Northern Rangelands Trust, and grew it to serve 1,200 women from 9 different indigenous communities across northern Kenya. She redesigned the financial model so that income lands directly in the hands of women. She built a stable structure by training a cadre of Star Beaders to each manage small groups of women, distribute beads and designs, collect product, and oversee quality control. She brought together the Star Beaders from different ethnic groups in annual conferences to learn from each other and address issues from wellness and nutrition to business and gender equality. She worked through US ally and representative, Joanna Brown, to market and distribute product, and found Ibu.
Beatrice Lempaira, top right, and Star Beaders visiting with Ibu Fringe Road Adventurers.
Partnering with BeadWORKS, Ibu created new designs to offer, provided portable offices in the form of complete beading kits for all 1,200 women who often work on the go, and funded a marketing video for their use on the global market.
After visiting Beatrice and Star Beaders during the pandemic, I returned in 2022 with 14 other Ibu allies. We gather under a canopy of acacia trees, listening to one woman after the next rise to speak about the impact of this work on their lives. I am sending my child to college, though my husband would never have approved—it is my choice, and from my earnings. I am putting healthy food on the table for my children rather than waiting for my husband to sell his cattle. I am running for public office in order to speak up for other women who have not had this opportunity to work. Together we are contributing five percent of our income to our conservancy to safeguard wildlife, and are proud to do so. We are supporting one another through many challenges, working side by side.
As each woman speaks in their shared Maa language, Beatrice translates. I notice how tall each woman rises, how resolute her face, how strong her spoken words. Sometimes a voice trembles, eyes fill, as women witness their own transformations. Beatrice stands with each woman, patient and still, like a light.
What an honor and joy it is for me to welcome that light to the US for Ibu's March 7 International Women's Day celebration as our 2025 Global Champion. Beatrice Lempaira stands as a remarkable catalyst for social change, wakening women to the power in their own hands. I want to beat the drum, dance the bobbing, jumping joy dance of these 1,200 women who join us in circling Beatrice and recognizing her life-changing leadership. Change so big, and greater still for starting with something so very small.
All the best,
Susan Hull Walker
Creative Director + Founder
