Maisha Maasai

The money will be used to train a community of over 7000 Maasai about agriculture, buy vegetable seeds for them (once), train old and disabled people about bees, hives and honey, and buy bee hives for them, and train 2000 women tailoring, making beads/jewelry, hair accessoires/hats and (leather) bags, buy material and machines, and establish corporations for all the programs. Furthermore we will design and open a platform and an app where we can sell the products.

For young men without jobs we'll organize trainings electricity, car mechanics, making furniture, plumbing, painting, and more. Till everyone has a job/income and/or starts his/her own business

I am from Holland and live in Tanzania since 2018. I love this country and try to help as many people as possible. After 3 years it's clear that most people don't have knowledge; even at schools they don't learn much and nobody uses Google.

We need to help 'our' Maasai. It hurts me so much to see the girls are circumcised and married off. The children are always dirty, wounds are open, there is no health care, they eat unhealthy. The average age the people reach here is 45 years!

We are going to do it different. We are going to teach good English at the schools, the children will learn to work individual and in groups, and they will learn to use Google. In the future we'll build colleges for teachers, mathematics and agriculture; good education is THE key!

Our organization is new although we had another foundation since 2009 but that was only for education (pre-school). Together with my foundation partner David we are going to help vulnerable people with training, jobs, income, health care, and eating more healthy. Of course there will be much more later on

There are many Maasai communities who live in pure poverty, where child marriages still happen a lot, and people never went to school. It's 2021! This has to stop! The government doesn't help in these areas, just like most foundations don't. We are the only foundation who knows the area and will help them.

When this program works well, we can scale up to other communities; there are millions Maasai in Tanzania living under the same conditions.

Most people in Tanzania grow maize which gives hardly any profit and sometimes even nothing. Together with Rijk Zwaan we will grow other vegetables, install biogas installations and use the biogas 'waste' and moringa leaves as fertilizer. With biogas installations the citizens will be able to cook clean instead of using firewood (inside).

It's hard to mention the number of people since many people in such communities are not registered (yet). The local government says it must be around 7000 people in Mererani but it can also be 12000. 

Maisha Maasai is an ngo that helps vulnerable people through education, jobs/income and sports

The difference with other foundations is that we grow the more expensive vegetables and open corporations so that everyone will benefit. We sell to tourist accommodations because we get better prices there. We find a market and won't let people suffer when they need to sell their products.

We think further; why do local chickens lay small eggs? Why is all the meat in Tanzania tough? Because the animals are not fed well. By giving the animals moringa leaves every day, the eggs will be much larger, the meat will be tender, the animals won't die of hunger anymore.

We help everyone, so also the old and disabled. We focus on the unmarried girls from 10 years old; by letting them earn some money, the parents won't have any reason to marry them off anymore. When they do, we'll report them at the authorities. We have to be careful with this though because the parents will go to jail and then the children (10-12) might not survive. We won't tolerate child marriages for many years though; we help, then they need to change!

When the Maasai grow vegetables and fruits, the women will get cooking lessons to learn how to prepare them. During those lessons, we'll tell them about nutritions, about the benefits of vegetables and fruits. Maasai only eat maize once per year; no other vegetables, no fruits at all. They need to learn to eat vegetables and fruits every day.

When they grow moringa trees, they will be trained to eat moringa every day. Moringa end hunger within 3 weeks, also of the animals, and it develops brains which is very important for the children. Everyone will be so much more healthy.

The parents can pay school fees, the children will go to school, study, live healthy and get nice jobs when they are older.

Old and disabled people will not only get income but will have fun again. We'll involve them at sport events; they can be the judge.

Women will get training, jobs and income; they will get power and become much stronger. Men will learn to respect their wives.

The impact will be huge! Of course we cannot change everything within a year but within 10 years, this community will be complete developed