A program that received the “Innovation Impact Grants” from “Expo Live”

“Cattle Milk” .. A project to empower Maasai women through a single product that they are allowed to own

• The Maasai community in Tanzania is herders who move with their herds.

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  From the source

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Expo Live, the Innovation Support Program for Social Impact from Expo 2020 Dubai, supports dozens of projects that have received Impact Innovation Grants, to work on finding creative solutions to pressing challenges, with the aim of improving people's lives.

Maasai Women

One of the award winning programs is a project presented by the Institute of Orkonere from Tanzania. The institute helps Maasai women gain financial independence by marketing the only product they are allowed to own, according to tradition, which is cattle milk.

The institute has set up dairy factories that buy cattle milk from women, to manufacture dairy products. The grant will enable the institute to reach more women and expand its reach.

Maasai women are among the poorest and most marginalized in Tanzanian society, so the institute works to improve the lives of women and children by increasing their access to social services and economic empowerment.

The Maasai community live in the Ngorongoro region of northeastern Tanzania. They are semi-nomadic cattle herders, who move with their herds, but their livelihoods are under constant threat. Women in the Maasai communities are particularly disadvantaged, and they do not have the right to own property or livestock, and they have very limited access to education facilities.

Less than two dollars

According to the institute, the loss of land, and other social and economic factors, have made the Maasai tribes live one of the most deprived economic conditions in Tanzania and Kenya, noting that the typical Maasai family lives on less than two dollars a week, and after Meet minimum living expenses, no money left for education, savings, or improving family wealth.

The Maasai community faces many challenges, as the area of ​​herders is shrinking for reasons, including climate change, which results in severe droughts, and large-scale investment by businessmen, in addition to the fact that the land is often owned collectively, not individually, and most of them are men. who decide how to use that land.

For the past 20 years, the organizations have been working to ensure that women participate in decision-making or, with men, participate in the management of land and natural resources. Under the efforts of the organizations, women are using their personal resources during the current period to save girls from early marriage, and many women are now able to afford meals every day and send their children to school regardless of whether their husbands agree or not.

Land management

The aim of the project is to create a better environment for Maasai farmers and their livestock and the local wildlife. The philosophy for this project is that wildlife and Maasai livestock can continue to live together, if the land they use is properly managed.

“The institute was launched 23 years ago, and part of the project is to empower women in the first place,” said Martin Sanago, director of the Institute of Orconeri, noting that according to tradition, Maasai women can only own cattle milk, and therefore we seek to Through these products to support them financially.

"We are currently seeking to build more milk collection centers, reach the largest number of women who live in remote areas of the dairy factories, and build logistical facilities to transport and distribute products and deliver them to consumers," Sanago added.

The problem is

that Maasai women have limited income-earning opportunities.

The solution is

dairy farms that enable Maasai women to sell milk from their only source of ownership, livestock.

sector

community development

Location

tanzania

domain

tanzania

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