RESOURCES

Making a change in the life of Tansania's Maasai women by Leila Ansell, founder of the Karatu Maasai Women group

Dear visitors, thank you for your interest in our Massai women project. In the following I will introduce myself and the reason why the support of the Maasai women has become one of my heart issues.

After having gained education in western countries I returned back to my home country Tanzania three years ago. Here my mum has established a safari business. This indeed has meant decades of hard struggle for acceptance in the male dominated African business world. Nowadays I’m working as the manager of the exclusive hotel belonging to the business (www.highviewhotel.com). In the beginnings I, thereby, also experienced the role which gender still plays in my country. However, nowadays I’m running a very successful hotel and have several women employed here, who I strongly encourage to climb the ladder and expand the role of women in society. Moreover, working here, I experienced the modernization developments in my country.

Nevertheless, I also explored that women still do not equally gain from these changes. Especially those living far from the cities are still victims of suppression. The worst example for this can be found in the Maasai tribe. Paradoxically, where the Maasai men nowadays enjoy the gains from modernization, their women are still living suppressed far away from civilization as hundreds of years ago.

You might wonder why especially the Maasai have caught my attention. Indeed, I believe that these people are one of the smartest people in this country. No wonder I have employed several of their educated men in my business. Due to this, I strongly consider the Maasai women to have capacity to become Tanzania’s leading figures of the future. Nevertheless, to become our women of the future these women first have to be empowered with the help of other women, to eventually also breach the obstacle of a male dominated society.

Thus, the Maasai women are suffering from a traditional gender comprehension which is probably incredible for all women enjoying the freedom of western countries. Hence, it became my key concern to make a change to the Maasai women in Tanzania, by empowering them through education.

Due to the fact that this is an enormous project I will not be able to make it up on my own only with donations from my clients. Hence, standing behind me, the NGO Zara Charity which has been established by my mother has included this project under their patronage. Eventually, I hope we can gain you as well as a supporter of this project.