“The lessons in sewing, child care of English given by the farmer’s wife to the wives of the farm workers, the patient efforts to train girls to cook or look after a house of a better type than the windowless hut of tradition, the voluntary work at girls’ clubs or community centres. It is these practical, unspectacular things, sometimes rather dull and tiring, that really change the lives of people, and endure when political tirades have long been forgotten. And it is these that form the major part of the League’s activities. They must be reckoned in together with its more public, newsworthy achievements, such as the formation of the Convention of Women’s Societies, covering all races from all over East Africa, and the opening in Nairobi of Weal House, where elderly women can find a refuge for their old age...”

 

“Many people thought that after Kenya’s Independence a body that had been so closely bound up with the settler community would fade away. Its vitality confounded these prophecies. Adapting itself to the times, the League widened its membership but maintained its aims. In the United Kingdom there is now a flourishing branch whose members have left Kenya behind but who still follow the country’s fortunes with interest and affection; and in the League’s country of origin the tradition established by its founders of voluntary service to the community is being faithfully carried on by a new generation...” - Elspeth Huxley

 

The Photos below are a collection of faces, events and places that form part of the EAWL and Kenyan history as the two are so closely linked.