Able and Ready

Able and Ready

Greetings!

Hello from Annapolis

Each year, a non-profit organization like ours must submit a report of its activities to the IRS.

It is a pleasure to compile a full picture of our work. As part of a community where there are many opportunities to make life healthier, safer, and more productive we respond to as many as we can—and it is a long list.

Because of our organizational capacity, it is possible to apply our inventions, such as stoves, water sanitation, and new livestock approaches, to make life better.

In addition, we wish to be a resource for others. We are proud to share reports of how this is coming to fruition at this moment. More and more, organizations seek us out for partnerships to help them mount their programs.

Read below for examples of how partnerships are enhancing progress in climate change adaptation and the empowerment of women—two of our most deeply felt areas of active concern.

These are just two ways of the ways we put your support to work. Thank you for being there!

With deep appreciation,

Twende!

Robert Lange

September 2023

Global Fund for Widows collaboration updates

As the need for organizing women for power and independence intensifies, The Global Fund for Widows (GFW) and ICSEE Tanzania have created a new collaboration to make even greater efforts possible.

Over the years, together with the GFW, we organized 19 groups of 25 widows in Maasai villages. Later on, with funding from other sources, we added another 12 groups.

The women in the groups share some of their funds in their cooperative banks and make loans to each other. They also have a collective livestock fattening business that brings money into their village through sales in the meat value chain.

This unites them. These groups also attract volunteer men from their village who value the empowerment of the women, and advise them in their new livestock businesses.

The GFW and ICSEE Tanzania have entered into a new strong and powerful collaboration. Together they will organize seven more groups.

Mesha Singolyo, our head of women's organizing on the ground in Tanzania (pictured above, on the right) will now also serve as Country Director for the GFW. Congratulations to Mesha for her well-earned promotion.

We are very impressed with the commitment Maasai women make to work for life improvement once they get organized and begin to believe in possibilities. This new collaborative energy from the GFW expands the empowerment program and is very important to both our organizations. Thank you to all concerned!

Nature Conservancy collaboration updates

Can a rain-based, livestock-based economy survive when changing climate means the traditional livestock practices won't work anymore?

Indigenous communities are held in high regard for their understanding of the nature in which they live they. However, when nature changes, what is to be done?

We must not hesitate to share experience and ideas related to the changing climate with the community. It is important to lend our aid to help them attain the imagination and freedom of action they need to adapt fast enough and well enough to preserve their society.

The Nature Conservancy (TNC) like us, is helping the Maasai herders broaden their range of actions. This means moving towards an increasingly business-like approach to their cattle practice. The TNC has invited us to enter into a new contract for the following:

The International Collaborative will mount a three-day training workshop with 60 herders from the Rift Valley. The initial focus is the introduction to climate change, its causes, and the imperative of adaptation.

Government officials responsible for livestock in the Maasai area, along with members of the scientific community will also address the group. Fellow herders who are already introducing climate adaptive practices will share their experience.

A tour of the International Collaborative Cow Fodder Factory is part of the workshop. Participants can observe the manufacture and distribution of nutritious, high-quality supplementary food derived at a low cost from industrial waste.

For the second half of the training, participating herders will select 100 of their cows. The International Collaborative Manyara Feedlot will keep them for 90 days. Watered, fed, and given moderate exercise, we can demonstrate that the value of the livestock can be maintained, and even increased during dry periods.

This depends on handling them in ways that go beyond traditional practices. These have always included walking the animals long distances for grass and water, even in drought. This has always substantially decreased their weight and market value.

We designed the workshop to help traditional pastoralists see directly that they have to be flexible and creative in the face of rising temperatures and changing rain patterns.

We appreciate the efforts and contributions of all who are making this possible.

We are able and ready--working on the ground to achieve important shared goals with organizations who can depend on us, in the field

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Depend on us to put your gifts to work!