PROJECT TITLE:
EMUSOI CENTRE, ARUSHA , TANZANIA

The Maasai, a pastoralist tribe, living in North and Central Tanzania , are at a crisis point in their history. They are experiencing pressures from outside forces which are causing them to become more and more impoverished. They are in competition with wide-life, large-scale farmers and business people for their land. Their traditional way of life is being forced to change by these outside forces. They are becoming increasingly marginalized -- economically, socially and politically.

One key reason for this increasing marginalization is lack of education. The Maasai do not see the value of educating their children.

As if this weren't challenge enough, the school system in Maasailand is very poor and in some areas non-existent. Only about 20 % of Maasai children of school age regularly attend primary school and only one-third of this number are girls. There are few secondary schools in the Maasai districts and most of the students in these schools are not Maasai.

Emusoi Center 's goal is to increase the number of Maasai girls in secondary education school.

Educated women are needed within the Pastoralist community to be agents of change and development. It is said when you educate a woman, you educate a whole nation. Investing in the education of girls is believed to be one investment with the highest return in the developing world. Emusoi Center is a step in a process that can help a whole people survive and develop.

This is important because the vast majority of young Maasai women do not get any education; their fate is to be married off at the age of 13 or 14 in an arranged marriage to a man 4 or 5 times their age.

The objectives of the Project are as follows:

• To enable Maasai women to access post-primary education (mainly secondary education).
• To enable these women to get further education/professional training after secondary school.
• To integrate these women back into their communities so that their skills can be of use to the pastoralist community.
• To provide a safe house for Maasai girls who have had to run away from home to pursue studies rather than being forced to marry.
• To provide Maasai girls with another option in their lives rather than marriage at the age of 13-14 years old.

Emusoi Center has asked EDGE International for help with funding for very important project.