Meaningful sustainability

Greetings!  I've just arrived back in Tanzania, and I'm very fortunate to rejoin the staff here as we plan, design, organize, and move forward. The resources needed to support the work come from multiple sources,and the recent Annual Appeal funds are especially welcome. Once again, the Appeal totals topped those of the year before, and I send you my special thanks for making this next phase possible. We're already putting the funds right to work. Read below about how your Appeal contributions are making a difference. And I'm also happy to share the news of progress in both the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and in villages at the edge of Serengeti National Park. This is important news because the Tanzanian conservation agencies are supplying most of the funding themselves. This recognizes our ability to help them fulfill their mission. Please accept thanks from all the people of the Maasai Stoves & Solar Project. Your support fuels our progress in so many ways.

With appreciation, Twende! Robert Lange February, 2020

Thank you!

Putting your Annual Appeal funds right to work

I t's urgent to get the ICSEE Cow Fodder Factory ready for full production by the next dry period. T his is invaluable in the face of climate change and the area's resulting increase in frequency and severity of drought. During drought, Maasai herders must supplement grazing with fodder, such as ours. Because of this, work on the Fodder Factory is one of the ways we are applying your Annual Appeal funds right away. We have already started building the small office, bathroom, and sleeping room for Factory staff.

Fodder factory a few months ago--it is now nearly completed

The Regional Manager of Tanesco, the Tanzanian power company, came to survey the factory to re-assess a three-phase service installation. It will be completed in a few days. Once the service is in place, your donations will also fund the grinder and mixing machines that make efficient production possible.

Thank you!

Work with stoves is always a focus area. We are in the process of coming to an agreement with the Adventist Development and Relief Agency to install several hundred stoves in two new village areas. Your gifts will cover part of the cost-sharing we are negotiating,

Serengeti and Ngorongoro updates

The well-being of people living near Ngorongoro is important for us all

We recently discussed how the agencies involved in conservation and wildlife support have come to realize that it's important to provide life-improving resources for the people living near their preserves.   Not only do these families need to be headed toward a better life for themselves, but the new resources reduce the pressure people put on the surrounding wildlife areas, as a result. Joyce Mungure of the Serengeti National Park Service had already begun working with the ICSEE stoves, realizing they required much less firewood than the open indoor cooking fires. The collaboration with Ms. Mungure continues successfully. This month, we will bring 124 more stoves to the village of Lamadai between Lake Victoria and the Serengeti.

Trainers will go up to the Ngorongoro Highlands to complete preparation of the team

Once again, women of the Project's expert Stove Installation Team will go to reinforce the training given a few months ago when we brought the first 50 stoves there.  We recently delivered two brick pressing machines we had designed and manufactured for them in Nairobi.  Some of the Project's men will also go to demonstrate how to use these machines to produce the bricks needed for stove installation.    We are happy to let you know that this is also happening beyond the Serengeti.   The people responsible for the other most famous and important wildlife area, the Ngorongoro Crater, have also approached us about stove distribution.   The Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority provides funds to the Ngorongoro Pastoralist Council, the elected representatives of the people living in eleven wards and more than twenty thousand households in the Conservation Area. The Council is now working with us to bring stoves to the area in large numbers.  Forty women from the Conservation Area have already come to the town of Mto wa Mbu for training by expert women from the villages of Mungere, Baraka, and Losirwa where hundreds of stoves are already installed.    Project Trainers will soon go up to the Ngorongoro Highlands and complete the training in the women's own villages. The new trainees will then install the stoves in the homes in their own villages.

Fireboxes stacked, ready for transport

Finally, we will ship the materials for the expanded stove installation. These include fireboxes and bricks from our area, added to local materials from the Highlands. Distributing and installing stoves requires funding beyond what the households can pay. It is particularly good when these added funds come from Tanzanian agencies.  This is a meaningful form of sustainability that we are especially happy to see. Sustainability doesn’t mean people don’t need assistance. It can mean that the assistance they need is finally being provided by the government, as it recognizes the genuine need as well as the quality and value of what is being provided.

Friends make all the difference

Two ICSEE staff members at the stove celebration

Friends like you are very important to us. Do you know someone who might also be interested in finding out about this work? We would love to connect with them. Please forward this email to them or send their name and email to us , and we'll share the next enews edition with them. As always, we respect their privacy and will never share their information with anyone.

Thank you to Gina Foglia, Philip Lange and G-Adventures for photography

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Support this award-winning work. Make sustainability meaningful

For a better life for rural Africans, and a cleaner environment for all Office of Programs and Development International Collaborative, Maasai Stoves & Solar Project 705 Americana Drive, Unit 5A Annapolis, MD 21403 USA 1-508-735-9176 www.internationalcollaborative.org ‌