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HER STORY WINS: Ms. Cathy Wanjiku Irungu { 28 images } Created 7 Feb 2012

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  • Cathy mingles with community residents at the Gathambara Tea Collection & Buying Centre near Othaya, Kenya.  Tea farming is an important cash crop in the vegetated hills of  Nyeri County; according to local estimates, there are at 3,000 tea farms in the county, and at least 6,000 tea farm workers who cultivate and maintain them.
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  • Tea farm workers, local residents, and members of the Nyeri County Citizen’s Network pack the Gathambara Tea Collection & Buying Centre to capacity as Cathy Irungu, Candidate for Nyeri County Women’s Representative engages with the audience to learn more about issues that are of greatest concern to community residents.
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  • A volunteer secretary for the Nyeri County Citizen’s Network signs in 63 people to a meeting of the Nyeri County Citizen’s Network.  The turnout exemplifies the community’s commitment to civic engagement;  even though many women had to miss a shift of tea picking, they took the time and effort to be heard and to hear Cathy and other leaders at the meeting.
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  • Tea farm workers, local residents, and members of the Nyeri County Citizen’s Network pack the Gathambara Tea Collection & Buying Centre to capacity as Cathy Irungu, Candidate for Nyeri County Women’s Representative engages with the audience to learn more about issues that are of greatest concern to community residents.
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  • Tea farm workers, local residents, and members of the Nyeri County Citizen’s Network pack the Gathambara Tea Collection & Buying Centre to capacity as Cathy Irungu, Candidate for Nyeri County Women’s Representative engages with the audience to learn more about issues that are of greatest concern to community residents.
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  • Cathy’s enthusiasm towards solving community challenges can be seen in the energy that she uses to answer questions, the sparkle that radiates from her eyes, and the copious notes that she jots down in her notebook at every stop.
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  • Ms. Cathy Irungu, candidate for Women’s Representative in Nyeri County stands at the front of the Gathambara Tea Collection & Buying Centre as she speaks with the Nyeri County Citizen’s Network.
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  • Women tea farm workers show particular enthusiasm for Cathy’s community leadership and candidacy for office, as she can relate to and understand the challenges they face in reaching economic, educational and cultural equity.  Only one of twelve local counselors is a women.  The new Kenyan Constitution is also motivating women to come out to vote to show support of their rights.
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  • Every eye is turned towards Cathy as she addresses a group of over 63 residents of the Othaya, Kenya community.  Many of the attendees were women tea farm workers who had taken their morning shift off to participate in the Nyeri County Citizen’s Network meeting.
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  • After the Nyeri County Citizen’s Network, women tea farm workers arrived at the Gathambara Tea Collection & Buying Centre with baskets of damp tea leaves, that are poured on wooden tables and aerated by hand.  Tea farm work is very labor intensive, and most of the tea picking, carrying and sorting is done by women in Kenya.
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  • A child plays with the brightly-colored tea leaves that have been collected in a hand woven basket from the tea fields of Nyeri County.
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  • The physical labor of tea farm work take a toll on one’s clothes and body, as seen in the exhaustion that covers this worker’s face.
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  • Cathy mingles with community residents at the Gathambara Tea Collection & Buying Centre near Othaya, Kenya.
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  • Cathy mingles with community residents at the Gathambara Tea Collection & Buying Centre near Othaya, Kenya.
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  • Local counselors and tea farm workers speak with Cathy about the conditions of tea farms during a visit to the Gathambara Tea Collection & Buying Centre near Othaya, Kenya.  Cathy’s interest and passion for improving economic opportunities through agriculture was rooted during her childhood while growing up on her father’s farm in Nyeri County.
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  • By some estimates, there are over 6,000 tea farm workers in Nyeri County.  Even though tea leaf picking is time intensive and stressful on the body, women occupy most of these jobs.
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  • As Cathy tours one of the many local tea farms near Othaya, Kenya, a large gathering of tea farm workers and others also participate in the visit.
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  • At the conclusion of the tea farm visit, Cathy takes times to talk with tea farm workers to learn more about their concerns as well as to answer questions about what she will do for them when elected to office.
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  • Youth activists have gathered in the gymnasium of a YMCA just outside of Nyeri Town to participate in a meeting with Cathy Irungu, a young leader who founded the African Food Security & Environmental Program (AFSEP).
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  • Youth activists from Nyeri County leave work early to participate in a brainstorming session on how to increase civic engagement outreach in 2012, as well as to increase women’s leadership in the county.
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  • Cathy sits around the tree house of a Boy Scouts Camp in Mathere as she listens to the stories of youth artists and young women soccer players who have been participating in the sports and arts empowerment program called the Mt. Kenya Marvelous Fraternity.  Nearly 3,700 young people have been trained in volunteer leadership through the program.
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  • A youth ambassador for the Mt. Kenya Marvelous Fraternity shares some of the accomplishments of the group with Cathy and other community leaders who have joined her at a visit with youth from the group.
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  • A youth ambassador for the Mt. Kenya Marvelous Fraternity shares some of the accomplishments of the group with Cathy and other community leaders who have joined her at a visit with youth from the group.
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  • A youth ambassador for the Mt. Kenya Marvelous Fraternity shares some of the accomplishments of the group with Cathy and other community leaders who have joined her at a visit with youth from the group.
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  • Cathy speaks with youth participants of the Mt. Kenya Marvelous Fraternity.  Nearly 3,700 young people have been trained in volunteer leadership through the program.
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  • Cathy speaks with youth participants of the Mt. Kenya Marvelous Fraternity.  Nearly 3,700 young people have been trained in volunteer leadership through the program.
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