MAJI: Nashipay's Water Fund
Donation protected
In June 2017 I was blessed with the opportunity to travel to Tanzania to live in a village and visit their new school, Nashipay Maasai School; a school built by a man who was on a mission to give back to his community by providing a means to education, an opportunity many Maasai children cannot access. The members of the community made me feel welcome and their kindness changed me in ways I didn't know possible. In an area where most families are surviving off of less than $1 USD a day, there was hope, dreams, joy, strength and faith. A lot of faith. Faith in God. Faith in man. And faith that even though their government didn’t assist them, they would persevere and overcome. Currently, their number one problem is lack of access to clean water and we spoke at length about how to overcome this obstacle.
On August 23, 2017, though the donations of 38 amazing individuals in 48 days, we finalized our first project goal of raising $1,740 for a gutter system on the school so the village could harness water for irrigation and bathing. On October 15, the project was completed and the village had two 5,000 liter tanks and a gutter system installed and on January 4, 2018, we received word from the village that both tanks were full of rainwater! This will provide the water they need to start a garden to provide fresh vegetables to the students of the school.
It is now time to begin our next project. The village would like to prevent or minimize the soil erosion that is destroying their roads and preventing their crops from reaching full maturity. After researching different techniques, we have decided that building a series of check dams throughout the region would be the most effective. (See article on the impact this has had in Ethiopia: Ethiopian farmers made a desert bloom again). We will also plant native sapling trees that they can irrigate with the collected rainwater to restore natural vegetation, thereby reducing dust and improving the quality of the air.
I will be returning to the village in June 2018 to oversee these projects, teach construction/maintenance of check dams and discuss future needs. All donations made are direct to charity and will be used to cover materials, local transportation costs, and local labor; there are zero administration or international travel expenses. Any funds raised in excess will be used to build additional classrooms; the government has mandated that more rooms be built before the school can re-open even though they provided zero funding for the current 3 buildings, but this is the ineffective system in place there. I also would like to offer an “Adopt a Child” component, where a portion of your donation will go towards meeting the individual needs of one of the 37 children from the village. Please talk to me privately if you would like to participate in this so we can discuss details.
With your help, I reached my last goal in 1/12th of the time I anticipated and I hope you will do so again to provide the essential to life: water.
On August 23, 2017, though the donations of 38 amazing individuals in 48 days, we finalized our first project goal of raising $1,740 for a gutter system on the school so the village could harness water for irrigation and bathing. On October 15, the project was completed and the village had two 5,000 liter tanks and a gutter system installed and on January 4, 2018, we received word from the village that both tanks were full of rainwater! This will provide the water they need to start a garden to provide fresh vegetables to the students of the school.
It is now time to begin our next project. The village would like to prevent or minimize the soil erosion that is destroying their roads and preventing their crops from reaching full maturity. After researching different techniques, we have decided that building a series of check dams throughout the region would be the most effective. (See article on the impact this has had in Ethiopia: Ethiopian farmers made a desert bloom again). We will also plant native sapling trees that they can irrigate with the collected rainwater to restore natural vegetation, thereby reducing dust and improving the quality of the air.
I will be returning to the village in June 2018 to oversee these projects, teach construction/maintenance of check dams and discuss future needs. All donations made are direct to charity and will be used to cover materials, local transportation costs, and local labor; there are zero administration or international travel expenses. Any funds raised in excess will be used to build additional classrooms; the government has mandated that more rooms be built before the school can re-open even though they provided zero funding for the current 3 buildings, but this is the ineffective system in place there. I also would like to offer an “Adopt a Child” component, where a portion of your donation will go towards meeting the individual needs of one of the 37 children from the village. Please talk to me privately if you would like to participate in this so we can discuss details.
With your help, I reached my last goal in 1/12th of the time I anticipated and I hope you will do so again to provide the essential to life: water.
Organizer
Maria Metcalf
Organizer
Clermont, FL
