CURRENT PARTNERS
COMMUNITY HEALTH ACCESS AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION (CHAEC)
CHAEC works in hard-to-reach areas of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) to provide accessible, essential health care services to communities who live far from existing health facilities by conducting mobile medical clinics in collaboration with staff from 13 health facilities. With the support of Maasai Partners, CHAEC improves the quality of life and reduces mother and child morbidity and mortality rates for rural Maasai communities. This is accomplished through CHAEC’s travel to 49 outreach posts each month to provide health services such as: vaccinations for children, teens and pregnant mothers, monitoring the growth of children less than 5 years, antenatal care, treatment of common conditions and health education sessions centering on personal hygiene, nutrition, disease prevention and sanitation.
GANAKO WOMEN’S COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION (GWOCO)
GWOCO is the nonprofit Community Based Organization (CBO) that we partnered with to start our Karatu loan program in back in 2012. This group that started out small in the village of Tloma currently empowers women in 15 villages to improve their lives through small business loans. They distributed 345,700,000 Tanzanian Shillings worth of loans in 2024, equivalent to about $128,722 in USD. GWOCO is the result of a partnership between local village Tanzanian women, Maasai Partners and Women's Microfinance Initiative. For women without collateral, GWOCO is their only means to access loans such as these, where women simply receive loans, pay them off, gain savings, expand their businesses, and repeat the process. Learn more about GWOCO by clicking here.
Northern Tanzania Beekeeping Company (NTBC) is our most recent partner. These professional Tanzanian beekeepers recently facilitated the hands-on trainings for the 10 new beekeepers that we sent to them in Ololosokwan village, on the eastern edge of the Serengeti National Park. The trainers graduated from the Beekeeping Institute in Tabora, Tanzania, and are very knowledgable regarding the science of beekeeping. The beneficiaries of these trainings receive a high quality protective suit, a bee smoker, hive tools, and their very own Tanzanian Top bar hive. As soon as their hives have reached the point of harvest, NTBC supports the new beekeepers by buying their honey at a fair market price. In this way, even residents of rural Tanzanian villages can earn a sustainable income through beekeeping. The company sells honey locally in Tanzania, supplying honey and beeswax products to safari lodges, shops, and hotels. In collaboration with U.S. nonprofit organization, Maasai Honey, these products are available to American consumers. Learn more about Northern Tanzania Beekeeping Company by clicking here.
RESILIENT COMMUNITIES AFRICA FOUNDATION (ReCAF)
Resilient Communities Africa Foundation (ReCAF) is an African civil society organization registered since 2021 under the Tanzania’s Non-Governmental Organizations Act No. 24 of 2002 to operate in Mainland Tanzania with a focus on pastoralist communities in Northern Tanzania. ReCAF envisages to address socio-economic and environmental challenges facing local and marginalized communities in northern Tanzania to adopt resilient mechanisms and thrive through community-oriented sustainable development initiatives. ReCAF’s key thematic areas of operation include the economic empowerment of women, climate change mitigation and adaptation, food security for pastoralists, maternal and child health, education and land rights. ReCAF works with Maasai Partners and Weston Turville Wells for Tanzania (WTWT) to champion women economic empowerment programs among the Maasai community in Ngorongoro.
WESTON TURVILLE WELLS FOR TANZANIA
Our name ‘WTWT’ stands for ‘Weston Turville Wells for Tanzania.’ It came from our village ‘Weston Turville,’ Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire (not far from London), UK and from our first water project ‘Wells for Tanzania.’ We support the Maasai in and around the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. These determined and resilient people, with their rich culture, have historically led sustainable lives in harmony with the wildlife of East Africa. Since being moved off their wide ranging lands of the Serengeti in 1959 their lives have become increasingly difficult. Strict conservation practice and the ever increasing effects of the climate crisis limit their ability to care for their families and livestock. We support them with their work finding solutions to their current issues which are causing widespread hunger and ill health. Projects include different methods of accessing clean water, year round food availability, sponsoring child and adult education, improved health care facilities, health education and microfinance loans with training for women opening up business opportunities. Learn more about Weston Turville Wells for Tanzania by clicking here.
WOMEN’S MICROFINANCE INITIATIVE
WMI is a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that provides loans of $75-$500 to women in rural East Africa to help them start and expand their small businesses. Loan programs are administered by village level organizations. Loans are issued to small groups of 20 borrowers, all of whom guarantee each other’s repayment. WMI also provides borrowers with training in financial literacy, business management, record-keeping and financial planning to ensure that borrowers have the knowledge and skills they need to be successful. Women use their business profits to pay school fees, buy more food for their families, improve their homes, pay for health care and expand their businesses.