Eti Dayan has been working in Africa since 1986 as a tour guide. During this time Eti visited Africa numerous times and found Africa and African people as her soul mate family.
For Eti Africa is not only a workplace, it is a home and a profession. In the year 2000 Eti received her MA degree in African Studies from the Hebrew University In Jerusalem.
Right before graduating from her MA studies in 1999, Eti got a call for help; one of the village women was very sick, her life was at risk and the local doctors could not help. For Eti there was no doubt about her next step, she flew back to Kenya to take the woman to a private hospital and save her life. This decision has also changed Eti’s personal life.
Few weeks later, back in the village with the woman – now in good health – the family and members of the village organized a big ceremony, where Eti Dayan was given a Maasai name (Nayolang – ‘One of us’) and invitation to stay as long as she wished.
Eti accepted the offer and built a small house near the village and ‘adopted’ seven Maasai children. Since then all the children got married and have their own families.
In 2022, Eti founded the Beat Of Beads not for profit trust, empowering Maasai Women Through beading. Located in Maasai Mara, the project houses Africa’s only museum dedicated to the art of beading – and is dedicated to preserving and studying the beading heritage of East Africa.