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Project: Maasai Women’s Education
Role: Design, Fundraiser consultation
About 8 years ago I made a small targeted effort to a project that continues to make ripples today. I programed an outlier event within a more locally focused arts organization in Jackson WY, and developed the communication materials for the event. Additionally, I worked with the project leader to help reframe the project goals as our connection with the Maasai community began to tell an evolving story we needed to listen to.
The inception of the project came from Morris Weintraub a photographer, who made a connection with a Maasai community in Tanzania. The tribe’s territory overlaps with a National Park where agriculture was prohibited, so Morris aimed to secure farmland land outside those boundaries. We developed and initiated a successful fundraiser through an event selling Weintraub’s photography and securing donations.
Upon staying in touch with the Maasai community and continuing to learn about the nuances of their needs and skills surrounding farming, Weintraub came back to myself and another project team member to asses our potential impact. We decided empowering specific people within the tribe directly would be the best use of the money we raised. Throughout his travels Weintraub made a connection with a specific family and learned about the roadblocks in his daughters ability to become educated. Shifting the specific project goals to best serve the future of the community, we reached out to all the contributors to the fundraiser communicating our intent to put a young woman through school.
Years later we received these photos of Niaputa’s high school graduation, satisfying evidence that we made a tangible impact on a young woman’s life. She most likely would have been married off in exchange for goats or cattle, been ceremonially circumcised, and would have never been educated. Instead, since getting this latest update, she is on schedule for sitting for her college exams. She aims to be a lawyer.
Studies show that the education of young women in communities all over the world result in more healthy, peaceful, and economically empowered societies.
Weintraub’s work, including his travel, personal resources, and dedication to the tribe and our ability to make a targeted impact demystified the ability for one community to empower another. I’m lucky to have played a tiny part in this story.
Please be in touch with myself via my contact page to contribute to Niaputa’s college education fund.