OUR WORK
At the heart of our work is the idea of partnerships.
Maasai Partners maintains this by collaborating with and connecting other organizations to each other, building a network of community partners. Given the unique circumstances of the population Maasai Partners serves, this model puts stakeholders at the forefront of our operations and creates relationships for long-term community development.
For Maasai Partners, serving the Maasai community in Alailelai Ward means partnerships take place at all levels—with the Maasai community, with grassroots Tanzanian organizations, and with small and large international organizations.
Spending time in our villages, getting to know the Maasai with whom we work and learning their needs is key to our organization’s mission.
How we benefit the community by networking with other organizations:
1. Knowledge sharing
2. Targeted programming
3. Resource maximization
4. Innovation in community projects
As the coordinating body of the network, Maasai Partners prioritizes outreach and bringing high-impact projects with targeted goals to Alailelai ward (for example, our partnership with Dr. Shemaghembe and his mobile clinic).
Through the network, successful projects are connected to other villages in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area that can similarly benefit. This united effort brings a greater awareness of the challenges facing Maasai communities in this area.
Maasai Partners also operates as an organization within the network, offering direct support to projects and providing grants to network partners. Additionally, we provide trainings in capacity building and organizational development with our Tanzanian CBO and NGO partners. Network partners are also given a space to explore opportunities for collaborating on new projects, pooling resources rather than competing for them, and sharing successes so we avoid ‘reinventing the wheel.’
Our key investments for grants, operational support, and partner projects are in organizations that place local leaders at the helm of their projects, ensuring that change comes from the grassroots level and that local knowledge is a resource for community development.
Where We Work
Ngorongoro Conservation Area is located in Northeast Tanzania, with Arusha being the nearest urban area.
Ngorongoro Conservation Area
Maasai Partners works primarily with the Maasai living in Alailelai Ward, located in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA).
Within the vastness of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Maasai villages take up a very small space.
Small bomas, with stick fences surrounding them, are sprinkled throughout the NCA.
The NCA is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Arusha region of northern Tanzania. It is best known for the Ngorongoro Crater, a volcanic caldera rich with wildlife, and for the neighboring Serengeti plains. Both are protected areas that draw hundreds of thousands of tourists each year for safari expeditions. Entrance to the conservation area is highly regulated, making it difficult for both foreign and domestic NGOs to work there.
Alailelai Ward, which consists of the three subvillages—Alailelai, Alchaniomelock, and Sendui—lies deep within the conservation area and is a two-hour drive from the nearest outside town. The area is extremely remote and far from tourist paths, keeping the indigenous locals and their lives generally unseen by foreigners who stay in lodges.
Karatu
Maasai Partners has also partnered with organizations to serve the community of Karatu town, outside of the conservation area. We have many microloan recipients in the town of Karatu.
Red dirt, urban shops and interspersed farms characterize this town.
The offices of our staff working on the ground were located in Karatu.
Here the population is largely composed of the Iraqw tribe and the people have comparatively easier access to social services and higher qualities of life.
While we focus our work in Ngorongoro, Maasai Partners does have partnerships based in Karatu. Most notably, we founded and continue to sponsor the Tanzanian hub of the Women’s Microfinance Initiative, known as the Ganako Women’s Community Organization (GWOCO).