I thought that I would pass along some recent information about the project that may inform and focus all of our research. The site will likely be in a small town called Maili Tisa (which lies within the Namanga (a larger town) division, Kajiado district, Rift Valley Province of Kenya). Namanga lies on the Kenya-Tanzania border and is in close proximity to Amboselli National Park (and Mount Kilimanjaro is within view). We are told that the Maasai population in Maili Tisa is very connected to traditional ways and the people are semi-nomadic.

[dave]

I don't have any new information at this point, I was just wondering when we were next meeting. - John

I was able to find a few organizations that have been involved or plan on getting involved with water projects in Maasai regions.

1. Practical Action - I believe this organization focuses on sustainabiliy in all areas, and that they do things all over the world. One of the regions they work in though is Eastern Africa. They do not specifically have a water program, but water is incorporated into other areas of focus (ie food, soil, etc.) and since they have been working in the region for about 20 years, they might be helpful.

http://practicalaction.org/
More specifically:
http://practicalaction.org/?id=food_production
http://practicalaction.org/?id=water_and_sanitation_strategy

2. African Medical and Research Foundation - They are involved in the Magadi water, Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion Project and they project is aimed at teaching the community to sustain a healthy water source. The projects seems pretty new so I'm not sure how much information they have. Regardless, they may be helpful.

http://www.amref.org/
More specifically:
http://www.amref.org/index.asp?PageID=63&PiaID=6&CountryID=1&ProjectID=100

3. Earthcare Africa - They were involved in building a rain water harvesting system that will help the Maasai women obtain water during droughts. The project is announced here: http://www.unep.org/documents.multilingual/default.asp?documentid=264&articleid=3137&l=en

I'm not sure what the website for the organization is but the contacts might be in the article.

-Stella

Welcome to our Blog. I thought this might be a good way for us all to keep track of information we are finding and exchange information. I hope it is easy to use.

What to post: When you find an interesting article/website/contact/ any other useful/interesting information related to our project, post it! Try to write a brief description of important info.

Remember to: Sign every post. This will allow easy tracking of who wrote what.
Check frequently.

Please don't: Delete information unless you posted incorrect info.

~Ruth