MWEDO Founded in 2000 by Maasai women, the Maasai Women Development Organisation funds activities and projects for Maasai women, addressing maternal and child health, economic empowerment and education for Maasai women and girls. MWEDO has sponsored almost 300 girls’ secondary education and works with over 80 women’s groups (about 2,800 women) dispersed throughout Maasai territory. ROTH Reach Out to Humanity is a registered non-profit, secular organisation founded on the principle that every human being has the right to proper health care, clean water, education, nutrition and shelter regardless of race, gender or religion. Their latest project was the Maasai Women Secondary School in Arusha, Tanzania, in partnership with MWEDO. www.reachouttohumanity.org
The dormitory, named Sasha Hall by anonymous donors, mid-way through the project, reflected in the water hole. There was no running water or electricity on the site, save one solar-powered security light for the night guards.
The Maasai Women Secondary School’s rural setting and its unique objective of incorporating Maasai language, history and culture into its curriculum, hopes to mitigate the shock of this kind of development. Run by and for Maasai women, it is first of its kind. Made of concrete and steel, the school will be the most permanent structure most of these girls have ever lived in. The Maasai boma (village), usually inhabited by an extended family, consists of round thatched huts made of intertwined twigs plastered with a hardened dung and sand mixture. The perimeter is fenced with acacia twigs and other thorny bushes to keep wild animals out. In most of Maasailand there is no electricity or running water and the concept of having a toilet inside your house is foreign and disconcerting to the older generation of Maasai. For 11 weeks, a team of over forty Canadian, Irish, Kenyan and American volunteers worked alongside local Tanzanian labourers and tradesmen to erect two buildings which are the first phase of this project (a kitchen and dining hall, and an administrative building, will follow when the funds are raised).
Local labourers plaster the classroom building’s concrete blocks with a mix of sand, cement and water, fashioning their own scaffolding with scrap wood, some of which was then used to make outdoor furniture.
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