Highs and lows in Maasai communities

Their main challenge is the prolonged droughts. That's why the communities, the gardens, the livestock and the wildlife suffer from a structural shortage of clean and healthy water.

In Orpirikata the water pump is broken, and after being repaired, it broke again.

The communities, supported by Friends of the Maasai, are working on an ambitious plan to install a new water system of sourcing and distributing clean water, but it will take a long time and a lot of money to get this realised. That's why it was decided to look for short-term solutions as well to improve the situation within months instead of years.

Happily there was good news as well. After we gave both CBO boards a new computer last year, two members of each board started enthusiastically with training to become familiar with emailing, Word, PowerPoint and other aspects of the digital world. The first results are there now, and they have a lot of motivation to expand their skills and to integrate this way of working in the working methods of both boards.

In the meantime the board of BeCuL in Tikoishi welcomed two well-educated young Maasai to raise their capacity on finance, strategy and water management.

In Orpirikata the beehives which were introduced last year delivered their first and promising harvest of honey. In Tikoishi the community garden is doing well. And the mentorship programme, which was introduced in 2025, is a great success. This three-year programme provides guidance and trainings for nomadic girls and boys covering education, health, rights and leadership. Over 1,000 young Maasai participated so far.

And above all we were very inspired by the eagerness of the local Maasai to learn and get more knowledge. We asked them to come up with a training plan including training to raise the skills of the board on project and finance management and training for income-generating activities in their communities.

Like last year, we learnt that being in the communities for some days and talking with the people involved gives us, as Friends of the Maasai, the necessary knowledge and information to play our role as partners in the best possible way.