“There's nothing quite like doing something
for someone else to put a smile on your face.”
From the community. For the community.
MATE is a community-led project that survives on support from the outside world. Our goal is to provide children – particularly female teenagers who have high dropout rates – with access to life-changing education.
The wilderness guide
Manja is a Maasai walking and field guide from Njoroi village in the north of Tanzania, bordering the Serengeti National Park and Mara National Reserve.
Manja attended the local primary school, where much of our work to date has been focused. From there, he went to Soit-sambu secondary school before finishing his education at wildlife college in Arusha and Mweka for practical bush and rifle training.
“I struggled a lot growing up to achieve my education. Sometimes, I had to go against my culture whenever I thought it wasn’t good, which is never easy.”
- Manja Kema
The community guide
In his job as a walking and field guide, Manja spends a lot of time in the bush. When he returns home, he values spending time with his family and looking after their livestock.
But his role as guide doesn’t end when he returns.
Manja also acts as a community guide, working to ensure others get the same access to education that he benefited from.
MATE long-term goals
Traditionally, girls get married when they are 14 or 15 years old, generally through arrangements.
Manja believes that by keeping them in school they will have more time to study and mature, allowing them to get jobs, lead the life they deserve – and choose their own partner.
Donate to provide Maasai children with access to education
Providing access to education can be a challenge. Some parents don’t want their children, particularly girls, to go to school.
There is the belief that they will lose their livestock dowry when their daughter gets married.
But, as Manja says:
“We still do it for the benefit of the girls.”
Would you like to be a part of our project?
Maasai proverb