2025 Trip to Tanzania
Judy Lane (left: founder/president of Maasai Partners), Maria Mirumu (middle: co-founder of ReCAF) and Rachel Blackmore (right: founder/president of WTWT) visit a Microloan program
Our most recent trip to Tanzania was full of work and, as usual, adventure! We got the chance to visit all of our ongoing projects (women’s loan groups, mobile medical clinic, students), the exciting opportunity to see a new one (beekeeping in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area), and spent some time with all of our current partners. I even got the chance to meet some of our partners for the first time–namely, Rachel Blackmore and her husband David, whose nonprofit is WTWT (Weston Turville Wells for Tanzania). Though their name comes from their first water project, they have since expanded to things such as women’s loan programs, and we partner with them on this to fund grassroots nonprofit organizations such as Resilient Communities Africa Foundation (ReCAF). It was neat to see their projects, and the impact they've been making on the communities they work with.
Esupat and Nemburis learn to process beeswax at the beekeeping workshop.
New Project: Beekeeping!
We recently started a new project, which involves having Maasai from the conservation area trained by a local beekeeping company in Ololosokwan Village (near Serengeti National Park), and allowing them to take their new skills (and tools) back to the conservation area to start their own hives. Northern Tanzania Beekeeping Company, who provides the training and tools, will buy back the honeycomb from the trainees and use it in the products they sell within Tanzania. How neat is that?! A guaranteed buyer, so long as they have a clean product, which they were trained to produce. We are very excited about this new project, and even got to visit the first workshop that we sponsored, where we spent the day learning alongside the trainees that we sent, and saw a “stingless” apiary for the first time! Stingless bees are smaller than normal bees, and they don’t have stingers. Since they have no way of defending themselves, they hide when predators are near, and their hives are quite vulnerable. Their honey tastes very different from regular honey; rather than being sweet, it is tart and citrusy. This was a very thorough training, offered by graduates of the Beekeeping Institute in Tabora, Tanzania. Our students have their new hives hanging in the trees of the conservation area, and we are excited to watch them progress along their new beekeeping venture. They have even registered as a formal group with a permit to work in Tanzania, and have named themselves the Highland Beekeeping Group.
Somian takes a taste of the honey as the trainees learn how to process it.
From left to right, Nemburis, Sam, Esupat and Somian receive their new beekeeping tools as they graduate from the beekeeping training program.
Women’s Loan Programs:
We visited with all of the women’s loan programs that we help to sponsor, and visited many successful businesses of the loan program participants as well. We saw a diversity of businesses–shops and restaurants, farms and brick businesses. The women are so grateful to have access to these loans, as there are no “banks” in the villages where they live. It was great to see their enthusiasm! We attended a loan repayment day and a loan distribution day as well. We were also invited to attend a big women’s celebration put on by our partner Maasai Stoves & Solar, where nearly 1,000 women from their groups were given extra money to boost their businesses. This program started out helping widowed women to start up their own businesses, but has since expanded to other vulnerable groups of women. Many of the women embark on a joint business together, and are accountable to each other. The celebration was an interesting one, and very well-attended. Even the local district commissioner was there, which is a big deal. In addition to him, three famous & fabulous Tanzanian musicians were there, and we got to hear them sing! We also got to spend some quality time talking with Maria Mirumu about her nonprofit ReCAF (Resilient Communities Africa Foundation) and asked her a series of questions, to which I got some great responses. Those will be posted on the website soon, so keep an eye out! We stopped in at the Hidden Hope Foundation, run by the son of Levina (Treasurer of the Ganako Women’s Community Organization, aka GWOCO), to see what new projects they were working on and buy some goods. We enjoy supporting them, since Hidden Hope employs local handicapped people in order to support them, which is wonderful. They’ve recently started making gourd lampshades, which are really neat!
A loan program participant receives her new loan money during a loan distribution day at Kinihhe hub.
Renada and Levina (left/middle, leaders of the GWOCO loan program) work with Endabash group leader Maria (right) to collect funds on a loan repayment day at Endabash hub.
Naimee, one of the best savers in the Endabash loan program, used her loans to scale up her business selling vegetables at her roadside stand.
Meshah from Maasai Stoves & Solar gives a great speech at the Women’s Group Celebration.
Maria Mirumu (co-founder of ReCAF) meets a famous Tanzanian musician at the celebration.
Employee of Hidden Hope Foundation works on a gourd lampshade.
A finished gourd lampshade from Hidden Hope Foundation.
Mobile Medical Clinic:
As per tradition, we went with Dr. Shemaghembe’s to visit one of his mobile medical clinics that we sponsor, this time at Sendui (“send-wee”) village. Women came from afar with babies in tow, and were grateful for the services. This was Dr. Shemaghembe’s first mobile clinic in over a month, because the NCAA (Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority) would not grant him his permit for the year, since they are making it very difficult to enter the conservation area these days. While there, we also met with a long-time volunteer of the mobile medical clinics. His name is Leshengai, and he is from Bulati village. We recognized him from our last trip, where he translated for us at Irkepusi village. He is a Maasai man from Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and he made it part way through medical school before running out of funds needed to finish. For the sake of continuity, Dr. Shemaghembe has been looking for a partner to help him run the mobile clinic; someone who can eventually take over the mobile medical program, once he is ready to retire. He approached us with a proposal, asking if we could help with finances for Lenshengai to finish medical school, so that he could hire him on as an official staff member. We love this idea, especially since we know how dedicated Leshengai is to the mobile clinic, as he has already been volunteering without pay for many years. We agreed, and are awaiting details about the school program that we will help him finish. It’s comforting to know that the mobile medical clinic will continue on in perpetuity!
Mobile Clinic volunteer Leshengai giving a health talk about using mosquito nets to prevent malaria.
Leshengai oversees the weighing of all children under 5 years present at the mobile medical clinic at Sendui post.
Scholarship Program:
We got the chance to visit some of our students, namely those at the Tumaini Junior & Senior Schools, and those in college. We met up with Rebeka and Nosim, who Judy has known since they were babies, and are both boarding at Tumaini Junior. In taking them out for sodas, we received updates on their time at school, as well as their home lives. Since it was my first time meeting them, I learned a bit about each of them, and was very impressed by both! Rebeka wants to be a pilot when she grows up, and her favorite color is red, which happened to be the color of her tracksuit. Nosim, who has long held the position of #1 in her class, wants to be a doctor, and her favorite color is another shade of red-–pink! These ladies are so intelligent, and doing so well in school. They even brought us to see their favorite room of the school-–the library. There, I met Rover (also for the first time), and learned that his favorite subject is English. (Fun fact: Rover is named after Judy’s Land Rover, where he was born while she was driving his mom to the hospital to deliver him!) All of the students were looking forward to February 22nd, when their parents could come to the school for a visit. Toward the end of our trip, we visited Tumaini Senior School, where we found Nangidai and Melami playing soccer in the field with their fellow classmates. The rest of their classmates whom we sponsor were on a field trip to Arusha National Park, but I got to learn about these two. Nangidai is in Form 2, and her favorite subjects include English, History and Physics. She wants to be a lawyer when she graduates, which the Maasai could definitely use! Melami is in Form 1, and was in his first month at Tumaini Senior when we visited. His favorite subjects include Physics, Biology and Math. He wants to be a doctor when he grows up. These students are boarding, and would remain at the school until their next vacation, in June. We also got to visit with many of our college students, whom are all doing well. We visited with some students who have finished their college and vocational education, such as Somian and Sumbati, who are both doing well. We even got the rare opportunity to meet Dr. Shemaghembe’s family (his wife and two intelligent daughters), and made a plan for Salmina to continue onto her PhD, and for Sabra to begin her undergraduate degree, which is exciting! We agreed to take on several new students during this trip, so if you are looking to sponsor someone, please reach out to us and we can share the details of who is in need of sponsorship.
Rebeka, Nosim and Rover show us around Tumaini Junior School.
Nangidai and Melami stopped playing soccer at Tumaini Senior School to meet with us.
Sumbati, sewing school graduate, is doing well with her shop.
Somian (pharmacy school graduate) introduces us to baby Esupat, his youngest daughter.
Judy and I met with Dr. Shemaghembe’s daughters Salmina & Sabra to discuss their future schooling.
As always, I am very much looking forward to our next trip early 2026! There are plenty of new projects and students that we are always taking on, so if you are interested in donating or helping with any specific project, please reach out to us via email at info@maasaipartners.org, or click the “Donate” button at the top left of our website. Every donation is matched x2!
Thanks for reading!
~Felicia Smith
Managing Director, Maasai Partners of Ngorongoro Community Network, Inc.
