Ngorongoro collaboration

Ngorongoro installation training

Local mission-focused Tanzanian agencies are realizing that collaboration with ICSEE means effective action, productivity, and success.

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) governs an area with more than 20,000 Maasai households. This group has the dual responsibility of improving lives of the Maasai while expanding the tourist utilization of this world-famous wildlife site.

The Ngorongoro Pastoralist Council is a body of Maasai leaders from the eleven wards in the Area. They receive funding from the NCAA to provide life improving services. They approached us because of their priorities in conservation and health, both of which are improved with our stove.

The NCAA also highly prioritizes livestock development and women’s economic empowerment. They recognize that the organizing expertise manifest in ICSEE’s work with widows in Monduli and Longido districts can also help serve their goals.

This month we started the process of training women of the Ngorongoro villages in expert stove installation. Eight of our strongest women from Rift Valley, Monduli, and Longido are now engaged in the ten-day training of these forty Ngorongoro women who have come to Mto wa Mbu in the Rift Valley for the training.

Nearby Rift Valley households in the villages of Baraka and Mungere will benefit by being the stove installation sites during the training. Following this preparation, the women will go back to their Ngorongoro villages. Some of their trainers will join them to help them integrate their new skills into the local settlements.

We are thrilled to be getting this going. Over time, there should be funds coming from the NCAA to bring our stoves to a large number of the households there. The Ngorongoro Pastoralist Council is highly motivated. Smoke-free homes and the reduction of firewood usage fit well into their mission.

This is excellent example of the links and bonds that develop when methods for actual good work are shared.