ON THE GROUND: Home Page Story

Best known as the film location ‘The Constant Gardener’, Loiyengelani is a harsh & remote, desert region of Northern Kenya. Here in the heart of the Chalbi Desert a cross-tribal women’s group: MoSaReTu has formed with 50 women from 4 of the local tribes: El Molo, Samburu, Rendille & Turkana. This group is breaking down the barriers of conflict and illiteracy by working on a joint project to raise money from tourism. This is just one of many projects happening in the region

The Turkana region and Chalbi Desert are the homelands2 to a number of culturally distinct tribes. The main communities are the El Molo, the Turkana, the Gabbra, the Samburu and the Rendille. They eke out a meagre existence in this harsh and unforgiving climate and inter-clan warfare is a way of life. Conflict is part of their cultural heritage and a semi-nomadic way of life makes schooling and enterprise even harder to sustain.

The name MoSaReTu takes 2 letters from four tribal names. Founded in 1987 and with USD$6000 as initial funding from WildiZe Foundation, USA the women have built 4 bandas (huts) to rent out to tourists & created an outlet to sell curios & traditional tribal adornments to visitors.

Wildize has continued to support Mosaretu and to date has donated over USD$15,000. Now more members can afford to pay school fees and educate their children. An important side-benefit has been increased dialogue between people from distinct communities and reduced conflict between their villages.

Since 2000 Origins Safaris (parent company of Grassroots Logistics) has been taking tourists to visit the Mosaretu village project, donating USD$20 per client towards projects and marketing cultural immersion programs for tourists with a genuine interest in cultural tourism and exchange.

Featured Community Project: Student Scholarship program in Moi High School, Kasigau

Moi High School is the only post-primary school within a 35 km radius of the remote rural community of Kasigau, southeast Kenya. It was established in 1979 with basic facilities such as classrooms, a general science laboratory and a home science room. Dormitories for both boys and girls were also put up making it a fully boarding institution. The current student population stands at 303, out of which 183 are boys and the rest are girls.

It costs an average of USD 450 (Kshs 31,500) per year to go through this school. With little paid employment and frequent drought in the area, over 80% of the parents cannot simply afford continued education for their kids. Hence, there is little or no motivation on the side of pupils to perform well in primary school. Since 1999, funding from donors and private sponsors has been pooled for an active scholarship program totaling over USD 77,100. This has enabled 70 students to attend secondary school of which 32 have now graduated after receiving the full four year support.

This program has helped to retain the best minds around the area thus reducing the braindrain problem. It has also greatly motivated the students in the neighbouring primary schools to perform better, making Moi High School the most improved institution within Taita Taveta District thanks to your continued support!

Secondary school is a bonus that only a few experience. If it can be afforded it is generally seen as the right of the first-born son of a family whilst younger sons and daughters are seen as important help-mates in the ‘boma’ (homestead) or ‘shamba’ (smallholding).

There are many reasons for this: simple logistics – many rural populations are scattered in a vast area, or nomadic by tradition, so the location of a school and transport to and from it is difficult. In many cases boarding at the school the only option and this increases the fees.

Cost is a major barrier: although the Government of Kenya recently introduced free primary education, post-primary schooling is funded on a fee-paying basis. Apart from finding cash reserves to pay fees, rural economies are largely dependent on subsistence farming and reliant on women and teenagers for (unpaid) labor – therefore continued schooling is an unnecessary expense.