A Maasai woman in a red shuka beading a necklace in the Maasai Mara — Beading in the Maasai Mara

Maasai beadwork · Maasai Mara, Kenya

Maasai BeadworksThe Maa Trust

The hand beadwork of 579 Maasai women of the Maasai Mara, Kenya — made to order in your own colours and patterns. A programme of The Maa Trust.

Sanchaari ID · SAN-M-000127

Maasai Mara, Narok County

Check out the products

Maasai women beading: 579; Maasai women beading
Villages around the Mara: 19; Villages around the Mara
Maasai Beadworks began: 2013; Maasai Beadworks began
The Maa Trust established: 2006; The Maa Trust established

Maasai Beadworks · a programme of The Maa Trust

Our Story

Created to address the needs and wishes of the Maasai people.

Two Maasai women laughing as they bead together — Beading together

How Maasai Beadworks began

Maasai Beadworks is The Maa Trust’s largest social enterprise for women. It began in 2013 with a simple idea: link the Maasai women of the Mara to the safari camps, and give their beadwork a market. The conservancies pay land rent, but that money mostly reaches men — beadwork, an art Maasai women have practised for generations, became the women’s own income, earned and managed by them.

Women beading traditional Maasai collars — Traditional collars

How a woman joins

When a woman joins, she is asked about her own life: what her greatest challenges at home are, which chores take the time she could spend earning, and what she would save for to change her family’s prospects. The village leaders, the Mama and Mzee Kijiji, choose one woman from each homestead to join.

Close-up of hands beading a round pattern onto leather — Bead by bead

Made by hand, and made to order

Every piece is beaded by hand — glass beads, often on soft Kenyan leather, in the colours and patterns of Maasai adornment, from the great collars worn for ceremonies to everyday jewellery, belts and bags. The women are trained by the Trust, bead in their own villages, and bring their finished work to the Trust’s workshop. They are ready for customisation, too: colours, patterns and sizes can be made to your own design.

Women of Maasai Beadworks beading at the workshop — At the workshop

What the beadwork pays for

Their answers were nearly always the same: clean water, light, a safer way to cook, and school for their children. Today 579 women from 19 villages bead with Maasai Beadworks — and every necklace, belt and bag they make goes towards those four things.

Maasai Beadworks

Meet the artisans

The works

Made by the family

Parts of Maasai BeadworksMaasai Beadworks

Maasai Beadworks

Maasai Mara, Kenya · The Maa Trust’s largest social enterprise for women, begun in 2013: traditional beadwork by 579 Maasai women from 19 villages around the Mara conservancies.

Maasai Beadwork

Maa Cross Body Bag

Maasai Beadworks · The Maa Trust

₹18,079

Maasai Beadwork

Shuka Shopping Bag

Maasai Beadworks · The Maa Trust

₹16,609

Maasai Beadwork

Raffia Basket

Maasai Beadworks · The Maa Trust

₹7,759

Maasai Beadwork

Bottleneck Enkariwa

Maasai Beadworks · The Maa Trust

₹1,969

Maasai Beadwork

Beaded Rungu

Maasai Beadworks · The Maa Trust

₹3,899

Maasai Beadwork

Beaded Leather Coaster

Maasai Beadworks · The Maa Trust

₹6,509

Maasai Beadwork

Fully Beaded Clutch

Maasai Beadworks · The Maa Trust

₹13,199

Maasai Beadwork

Emurragie Necklace

Maasai Beadworks · The Maa Trust

₹10,589

A household solar power kit with lights and a charge controller

Solar power at home

Clean water, and light after dark

Rainwater harvesting — gutters and tanks at home collect clean, safe water, and save the hours spent carrying it, sometimes as far as nine kilometres from polluted rivers and springs.

Household solar power — light, phone charging, a radio and a torch for the family, so children can do their homework in the evening.

A gas cooker given to a Maasai Beadworks household

Cooking on gas

Safer kitchens, and daughters in school

Refillable gas cylinders — with gas instead of firewood, women and children no longer walk into the conservancies to gather wood, away from the risk of meeting dangerous wildlife, and their homes are free of the smoke that harms their health.

School fees — Maasai fathers often pay for their sons, but a daughter’s schooling is her mother’s to find. For many of the women, it is the first thing they save for: they want their daughters to have the opportunities they never had.

The women of Maasai Beadworks

A group of Maasai women beading together — Beading in a group

A Maasai woman beading outdoors — Out in the open

Maasai women beading under a shelter on the open plains — On the plains of the Mara

Maasai women in bright shukas singing and dancing — Song and celebration

A community meeting of Maasai women seated in a circle under the trees — A community meeting

Strands of coloured beads hanging ready for work — Ready for the work

Visit us in the Mara

Guests are welcome at The Maa Trust’s headquarters and beading workshop in the Maasai Mara, to meet the artisans, see the beadwork being made — and even try beading themselves.

Beyond beadwork: The Maa Trust’s wider work

Alongside Maasai Beadworks, The Maa Trust works across the Maasai Mara on projects that sit outside Sanchaari’s craft — chosen by the communities themselves.

Education & child protection — Ngila ECDE and Primary School, scholarships and conservation camps, IT training and career guidance, and child rights, including Alternative Rites of Passage for girls. Health & water — clean water and sanitation for homes and schools, community healthcare outreach, the CHP Talek Health Centre, and mama kits for new mothers. Other enterprises — Maa Bees, and training in managing money. Conservation — working alongside the Mara conservancies, so that wildlife and the families who live beside it can both thrive.

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