The Lewis family has always believed that strong leaders make stronger communities. Just as Grand Circle Foundation works to change lives in the destinations that welcome our travelers, Alnoba is the top resource in New England for leadership and team development for more than 70 teams in 100 countries. Each year, the Alnoba Leadership Awards honor brave and brilliant leaders whose courage, wisdom, or potential inspire us to act more boldly.
About the Alnoba International Indigenous Leadership Award
Congratulations to Naiyan Kiplagat, recipient of the 2024 Alnoba International Indigenous Leadership Award.
The Alnoba International Indigenous Leadership Award honors an Indigenous leader outside the U.S. who serves as a bold defender of Mother Earth, inspires communities to action, and honors and applies traditional beliefs to the most pressing environmental problems of our day. In 2024, we were pleased to recognize Naiyan Kiplagat, cofounder of Paran Women Group.
About Paran Women’s Group
Located in Narok County, a village that is inhabited by a population of approximately 60,000 residents, Paran is a network of 3,000 women from 64 Indigenous women’s organizations from the Ogiek and Maasai Indigenous Peoples in Kenya.
The project focuses on improving water and food security, and includes establishing kitchen gardens, organic briquette making, native tree planting, beadwork, medicinal herb collection, and beekeeping to generate alternative income sources.
Reforestation is a key focus, and the collective has established nurseries in which they cultivate seeds of trees native to the forest that has been felled. They also grow legumes and vegetables, which they sell together with the trees ready for reforestation.
Paran’s goal is to plant more than 150,000 tree seedlings before 2030 with members trained in planting short season crops and conservation agriculture. According to Naiyan, "We have planted trees around our homes, in schools, and everywhere we can. So far, we have rehabilitated more than 150,000 hectares. The change has been magnificent, there are already women who have access to clean water, which has changed the lives of many people, as contaminated sources cause many diseases, especially among the children in our communities."
Paran Women Group’s activities are carried out through patrols—groups of women that travel to different villages in Ololunga to give talks on the importance of forest care and other environmentally friendly practices. They share this important information with their neighbors, so that they, in turn, can pass the knowledge on to other women.
Accolades for Nayan Kiplagat
Naiyan has received the Women’s World Summit Foundation (WWSF) Prize for Women’s Creativity in Rural Life for her leadership efforts and Paran won the top award in the non-technical solutions category at COP23. In recognition of her Alnoba International Indigenous Leadership Award, a $10,000 donation has been made to Paran Women’s Group in her honor.
Meet women of the Maasai tribe and learn how climate change has impacted their livelihood when you join O.A.T. for Kenya & Tanzania Safari: Masai Mara to the Serengeti. You can learn more about Alnoba’s mission to build strong leaders at www.alnoba.org.
