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A school for Maasai women: learning Swahili to get out of the boma

Association Terre O Vent

Context

During a visit by the Terre O Vent association to the Arusha region, meetings were held with women from the villages of Engare Sero and Eluwai. Three-quarters of the women present did not know how to speak Swahili, Tanzania's national language, and had never attended school. None had completed primary school and had no knowledge of English. All wanted to learn Swahili and English to communicate outside their boma and be less dependent on their husbands. They hoped to develop small jobs (selling salt from Lake Natron, corn flour, Maasai jewelry to tourists, etc.). The women also reported having no knowledge of sex education, contraception, or information on STDs.

Project objectives

Enable Maasai women to have basic education, and fight against their marginalization and social dependence

Teaching Maasai women to read and write, keeping simplified accounts

Offer women the practice of sewing, in particular to sew washable sanitary protection in order to combat intimate insecurity

Offer sex education sessions, with awareness of sexually transmitted diseases and contraception, and the issues of genital mutilation, which is still too common in Maasai culture

Activities

Teacher training and curriculum development

Equipping the two schools with school furniture, purchase of a photovoltaic lighting system

Three three-hour Swahili courses per week for one year

Three English lessons per week for one year

Purchase of two mechanical sewing machines needed for sewing workshops

One sewing class per week for over a year

Implementation of a system for paying salaries by trainers from local associations, through a system of microfinancing by beneficiary women and self-financing through the sale of products made during sewing classes

Raising awareness among women in the two pilot villages about issues related to sexuality, contraception, and the fight against genital mutilation

Direct beneficiaries

30 Maasai women between 20 and 50 years old in each village, or 60 women in total

Social networks

Through its Microprojects division, the La Guilde association, in partnership with the French Development Agency, supports the implementation of microprojects in the service of sustainable development internationally.