Four pathways to life improvement

Four Pathways

Greetings!

Hello from Tanzania!

Working with the International Collaborative staff, people of the villages and bomas, and you, I am very happy to be doing this work.

How do we choose which challenges to address?

All our staff members are from local communities. Most have grown up in the conditions we find we can now improve with our work.

Some of our Project areas are strongly affected by the weather, some not. Some parts of our work are ideal for scaling up, funds permitting. Others are more for demonstrating an example.

All the aspects are about a better life for the people. Read below about four areas of focus and the differences that emerge.

With my deepest thanks,

Twende!

Robert Lange

May 2023

Improving smoky houses

A great positive change. Could scale up to all current Maasai homes, until the homes themselves are finally improved

Smoky houses with very bad air to breathe are not good places to live

We have now installed 6000+ stoves in more than twenty villages spanning four districts.

Improving smoky houses…. this is a great positive change that could scale up to all current Maasai homes, until the homes themselves are finally improved

The Maasai Stoves & Solar Project was the International Collaborative’s first area of action and remains at the core. All women want the stove. There are no reasons to resist it.The people pay the team of Maasai Women who install their stove, and the Project covers the rest of the expenses.

This is an example of an action that has an immediate positive effect on the quality of life. It is limited only by funding. With increased funding, it could scale up enormously.

We are especially happy to be bringing stoves into the homes of the people in the programs of other organizations.

Sanitizing polluted water sources

Essential, and must scale up, but the conditions themselves must change in the long-term

It is awful to have to drink water that makes kids sick, or even die

We have now installed seven pond-side chlorination systems

While we were always dissatisfied with the dirty water the women collected, we didn’t get started in water sanitation right away.

This sector is quite different from the stove project. The stoves simply work. If the woman collects the wood and wants to cook, her stove eliminates smoke and saves fuel under any condition.

But our water sanitation systems are in the world of nature. You see the nice side of that nature with all the beautiful weaver bird nests in the trees around the water ponds.

Even though the International Collaborative technology is excellent, and all families need safe water, the environment has a huge impact on the availability of water.

During times of drought, there may be no water in the pond to sanitized. This work should be scaled up, but in the long run there are going to have to be better water sources for the people.

Organizing women for business success

Women need power and independence arising from joining together for mutual support and collective business

With their own income, women raise their community standing and improve life, according to their priorities

We are providing business development opportunities for dozens of women's groups--and growing

Maasai women are proving they can do wonderful things when they have control of financial resources.Women’s groups organized for income and cooperative finances is now clearly one of International Collaborative’s most important activities.

We began organizing our women’s groups in collaboration with the Global Fund for Widows. That was the first 19 groups, in six villages.

What really works is providing "on-the-job" training-- within the actual ongoing business. Success also depends on enough capital behind it for an effective launch and product.

Nearly 500 widows are now benefitting. The issues here in Maasai land are the same for women who are not widows, and so, in our expansion of the program, all women are welcome.

It was a wonderful surprise to discover how profound the effects of this program are. Women get together for companionship and to share problems and solutions. With our help, the participants receive capital and use it well.

With their livestock fattening businesses, they create wealth and distribute the benefits uniformly among themselves, without favoritism. They attain respectful recognition for all villagers, including men, beyond what might have been anticipated.

We are using funds from our general fundraising efforts to start 18 new groups, and even the government is coming and begging us to do it.

Adapting herding practices to climate change

Livestock survival threatened

Stimulating creative imagination in the minds of Maasai herders

The International Collaborative can demonstrate,motivate, and create flexibility, but the large-scale changes that climate demands will have to involve the entire society.

Traditional cattle management practice has serious challenges when rain becomes undependable. This problem is of enormous scale, involving the economical basis for the more than one million Maasai in Tanzania. It is so daunting, and as climate goes on changing, the work will never be final. Adaptation is a permanent demand on us all.

To help the herders through these difficult conditions, we built facilities that demonstrate flexibility and creativity in livestock management.

These include the Cow Fodder Factory, Feed Lot, Hay Farm, and breeding herd. They all serve to maintain and protect some animals for some herders. However, they are primarily for demonstration and inspiration, as we cannot expand them to a scale to be the solutions themselves.

Meaningful work

Thank you for your help

The challenges vary widely and the range of work is interesting and exciting. These opportunities come from a direct involvement right here, in Tanzania, working with great joy and effort within the community. We thank you for being with us.

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