The Maa Trust (Maa Tech)

Maa Tech at The Maa Trust provides vocational training opportunities in sustainable technologies, supports alternative livelihoods, and incubates small businesses for communities in the Maasai Mara region of Kenya, one of Africa’s most important wildlife areas, globally emblematic for biodiversity, and known worldwide for the annual migration of over a million wildebeest from the Serengeti plains. Programs will help address gender inequities by providing women and girls with the tools, technologies and education to move their families out of poverty. Through our latest venture (Maa Tech) we are establishing pilot training opportunities in hydroponics, mushroom farming, agriculture grow bags, biogas, mini solar grids, solar cold storage, milk processing, and water harvesting/filtration and a live business simulator - all designed to help solve some of the most complex issues facing the Mara - poverty, disease, lack of livelihood and economic opportunity, and inequity - while helping diminish biodiversity loss and land degradation to support a harmonious balance between development and conservation. Funds would support the expansion of Maa Tech and its pilots, recruitment of women and girls into the programs, and pay for technology needed for training. 

The Maasai Mara is immensely valuable for biodiversity, hosting 25% of Kenya’s wildlife, more than 95 species of mammals and over 550 species of bird. It is considered one of the most important conservation areas on the planet. Tourism is the single largest source of income for local communities but it is not sufficient to support a growing population. Now the ecosystem is threatened, in part, because lack of economic opportunities are driving people to poaching, illegal logging, charcoal making and other environmentally destructive activities to feed their families. The Covid-19 pandemic has brought tourism to a complete standstill cutting off livelihoods for thousands employed in this sector. There is therefore a tremendous need to diversify income opportunities. Maa Tech is a partnership between The Maa Trust, Terra Conservation Initiative, Africa Water Bank and Smart Village- that aims to support conservation and sustainable economic development- through scalable technological solutions that address water, energy, transportation, agriculture and waste needs, whilst offering training and business opportunities, with a particular focus on women and girls. The center will also showcase technology to help leverage funding and promote adoption of environmentally sustainable solutions that will enable people to live in harmony with nature.

Maasai pastoralists have lived with cattle alongside wildlife for centuries. However, due to 10% population growth per annum in the Mara, fragmentation of land and a shift in cultural norms, this way of life is increasingly difficult. People are resorting to environmentally degrading livelihoods to survive. Tourism is a major source of income for local communities, however, even prior to the Covid-19, only 12% of residents in Narok (population 1.2 million) were in wage-paying employment. Local women in particular have limited options- 92% of women in The Maa Trust programs are illiterate. Youth make up 66% of the population and are also in desperate need of opportunities. While employers want to hire locally, youth and women often lack required skills and are forced to move to cities for training, with many not returning. Maa Tech is the latest venture of the The Maa Trust- an established non-profit organization in the Mara offering vocational training and promoting small business startups & micro finance schemes to enable women to generate income in sustainable ways. This project has a triple bottom line impact: social, environmental, and economic. Maa Tech will train 350 youth and women per year, create social enterprise businesses and start-ups. 

Maa Tech's pilots are unique in making clean technology for energy, agriculture and waste management available to women and girls to improve incomes, expand food security, enhance gender equity, and transform productivity, health and wellbeing while supporting conservation of wildlife and habitat.  We place emphasis on innovation- using a ground up community based model that also partners with global institutions- Africa Water Bank, Terra and IEEE Smart Village- for expertise, mentoring, and access to financial start-up capital and business training through a network of over 400,000 electricians, engineers and business experts. This allows trainees unprecedented access to knowledge and capital. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that if women had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase farm yields by 20 to 30%, and assumes that the development of other income-generating activities managed by women can have a significant impact on poverty reduction. Maa Tech therefore places female empowerment and development at the center of programs- enrolling 350 local youth aged between 16 and 35, including a minimum 40% female who will complete an accredited vocational training course in sustainable tech within 18 months. 

Since 2006, The Maa Trust has aimed to eradicate poverty through sustainable community development in a way that complements conservation. Our work is centered around alternative livelihoods for women and youth, education and capacity building, clean water access and quality healthcare. Using a community based, ground-up model, we have supported 27 schools through infrastructure development, upskilling and training, supported 50 children fleeing child abuse through scholarships, coordinated awareness programs to prevent FGM, child marriage, child pregnancy and child labor, provided vocational training, career guidance, entrepreneurship and social enterprises for 684 women and their families (over 13,000 people), constructed nine community water projects, providing clean, safe water to over 5000 people, developed a health clinic to ensure quality medical care to 40,000 people, launched a population, health and environment programme to ensure that 40,000 people have access to family planning, employed 579 women through Maa Beaworks, and operated a sustainable spending program to empower and ensure that income generated is utilized to reduce household poverty and maximize environmental impact. We are successful because we work with the community to evaluate needs, develop programs in response to community needs and partner with other NGO’s and like minded organizations.