Women of Greatness and the Power of Community-Led Solutions
Grassroots organisations hold deep knowledge of the communities they serve. AFWAG brings these organisations into a connected ecosystem where experience, resources and partnerships can create greater possibilities for women and girls.
Women of Greatness, an AFWAG member based in Matopeni, Kenya, offers a powerful example of what community-led action looks like in practice.
Founded in 2019 by six women who recognised the different needs of women and girls in their community, the organisation has grown into a registered Community-Based Organisation with a team of 11 women. Its work responds to needs across generations, from menstrual health and vocational skills development to economic empowerment, healthcare access and care for vulnerable elderly women.
Community knowledge translated into action
Women of Greatness has developed practical interventions around the realities women and girls face in their community.
For adolescent girls, this includes menstrual health education and sanitary pad distribution, alongside support for teenage mothers to access vocational training in areas such as hairdressing, catering, beauty and tailoring.
For adult women, skills development in soap making, poultry farming, catering and digital marketing has opened pathways into income-generating activities. Some participants have gone on to establish businesses, including hair salons, soap-making enterprises and poultry ventures.
Its work also extends to vulnerable elderly women who lack reliable family support. The organisation assists with food, medication and hospital visits, while creating opportunities for social connection through regular gatherings organised with Provide International, another AFWAG member.
What the AFWAG network makes possible
The relationship between Women of Greatness and Provide International illustrates the value of connections between grassroots organisations with complementary experience and community priorities.
This is central to AFWAG’s work as the connective tissue of Africa’s gender equity ecosystem: bringing organisations into relationships where knowledge, experience and resources can be shared, and where collaboration can open new possibilities.
Women of Greatness has built a substantial body of community work, but sustaining it remains a challenge. Several former partners have closed their operations because of funding constraints, leaving the organisation to rely increasingly on personal contributions from its members.
Its current priorities include expanding poultry and agribusiness activities through a dedicated hatchery, securing more consistent menstrual health supplies, accessing medical resources for elderly care and creating further skills development opportunities for young women.
These needs point to opportunities for more intentional connections within the AFWAG network, including exploring joint funding opportunities with Provide International, linking the organisation to relevant skills development partners and identifying potential collaborators in healthcare, menstrual health and livelihoods.
Connecting grassroots leadership to greater possibilities
Women of Greatness demonstrates the depth of leadership and practical knowledge already present within grassroots organisations. Its experience also raises an important question for the wider ecosystem: what becomes possible when organisations doing this work have access to the right relationships, resources and institutional support?
Through its three pillars of leadership development, organisational strengthening and network connectivity, AFWAG works alongside grassroots organisations to build the foundations, relationships and collective capacity needed to advance their work.
Women of Greatness is one of the organisations contributing to this wider ecosystem. Its story is also a reminder that community-led solutions need an enabling environment in which they can be sustained, connected and taken further.
This is the value of the AFWAG network: connecting the knowledge and leadership already present in communities to the relationships and opportunities that can help them go further.
