"We
would like to be agents of our change rather than victims of
change." Kakuta
Ole Maimai, Managing Director, Maasai Association.
The
Maasai Association is a community-based non-profit organization
501 (c)(3) and NGO based in Bellevue, WA and Kajiado Central
District of Kenya. The organization’s humanitarian and
relief work is aimed at building schools, water systems, providing
academic scholarship to disadvantaged children, and supporting
sustainable economic development projects in the Maasai region.
PHILOSOPHY
To
preserve Maasai culture
MISSION
To
empower the Maasai people so that they can make better-informed
decisions affecting their future, and to minimize permanent
migration of young men and women from the community into urban
areas (brain drain).
MEANS
TO MEET OUR MISSION
Our
Fully Integrated Development Strategy encompasses the following.
EDUCATION
Objectives:
•
To build learning institutions such as a primary school, secondary
school, vocational and training college, library, cultural center
and other educational institutions essential to community self-reliance
and cultural conservation.
•
To set up and run an educational fund program for bursaries,
scholarships and other educational sponsorships for needy students
from the area.
•
To build a health center/clinic and promote a community health
education and disease prevention program.
ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT
Objectives:
•
To create employment in the local area through alternative income
generating activities such as community based tourism and intercultural
exchange program.
•
To help the community promote ecologically and culturally sensitive
business activities for the purpose of community building, employment,
and economic self-reliance.
•
To support and improve sustainable traditional livestock practices
and insure food security.
•
To support the villagers through a micro-lending program of
cattle and goats for the purpose of reducing poverty in the
local area.
LONG-TERM
GOAL
To
integrate the Maasai people into the modern world, while preserving
the culture through education, health, environmental conservation,
and economic development.
