Dear Friend,
International Women's Day takes place all over the world on March 8. In Monduli and Longido districts of Tanzania, the women of the Maasai Stoves & Solar installation teams constructed and demonstrated the stoves at local celebrations.
Read more about these events and news about the Monduli Pastoralist Women's Organization (MPWO) in this month's newlsetter. I am delighted to share updates on the progress of our electrification project and stove research. As always, you are at the heart of all that we do. Thank you.
Twende!
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First Prize for the Maasai Women's Installation Team
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| | International Women's Day |
Originally created in 1909 to commemorate the New York garment workers strike, International Women's Day was moved to March 8 by the U.N. during the 1975 International Women's year and is now celebrated on that day, all over the world.
This year, members of the Maasai Stoves & Solar women's installation team participated in celebrations in Monduli and Longido districts.  They constructed a stove in each of the districts, demonstrating how it improves life for women and children. The team members received First Prize at the Longido celebration, recognizing them for their outstanding leadership and the way they bring concrete benefit to Maasai women.
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Sustained adoption of the Maasai Stoves & Solar stove
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No matter how wonderful a new stove design might be, it is beneficial only if it is used on an ongoing basis. Sustained adoption is a legitimate concern for the stove community, and some programs are far from achieving this.
Maasai Stoves & Solar is proud to tell you that we have an excellent rate of sustained adoption. We have seen no evidence of Maasai women returning to three-stone open fires, or other dangerous and damaging ways to cook for the family, once they have our stove.
Researchers have applied to the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves for a grant to systematically study our excellent record of sustained adoption.
In the meantime, we continually collect usage data. For example, we conducted our most recent study with surprise visits to 22 homes in January. We chose the homes randomly from a group that had stoves installed a minimum of three years ago. Together with other staff members, Kisioki and I were very happy to find that 100% of these households were still using our stoves.
In fact, only one of these women cooked on anything else. Stove Installation Leader Maria installed her stove in her shed which later developed a leaky roof. When it rains, she finds it more comfortable to cook in her main house with a charcoal burner. It will cost her about $60 to fix the roof of her shed.
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Monduli Pastoralist Women's Organization
There are now more than 120 women who install stoves in the Maasai Stoves & Solar Project. That number grows whenever we begin work in a new village, as veteran members train the new installers.
We are delighted that in the atmosphere of power and new capacities, these women have created an organization of their own, the Monduli Pastoralist Women's Organization (MPWO). We introduced you to the group last year, when they elected their officers. They have invited the ICSEE to advise and assist them.
Since that time, they've expressed their priorities, arriving at many ideas to fulfill over time. In the short term, they aim to earn money so that they will have more control over decisions about how resources should be applied in their families, while raising funds for future shared projects.
Buying goats and cattle, fattening them up, and selling them for a profit is their first project. We shared a story about the MPWO goat program in the October edition of Twende!
While this may sound like a routine activity, in Maasai culture, women taking this action is totally unprecedented. By this summer, full profits from the sale of their first 40 goats and 30 bulls should be in their hands. We hope their search for funds for the next stage of business and management training will bear fruit by that time.
Follow the progress of the MPWO at their new website.
Congratulations Maasai women of Tanzania!
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Electrification spreading in Monduli district
We've nearly completed micro-grid electrification of the seventh Maasai boma of our initial ten-boma project. Read more about the electrification work. We're in the planning stages of Project expansion, bringing solar grids to many more bomas and to thousands more people.
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| | Off-the-grid electrification spreading to new villages |
The boma owners are happy to put smoke-removing stoves in all the homes before their electric service is installed, a Project requirement.
Now we look ahead to helping the people of the bomas use their grid to the maximum. I recently vetted math-teaching software for the newly-trained boma computer experts to try out with the boma's children. If they confirm that the software meets their needs, we plan to supply all the electrified bomas with teaching tools like these.
In this way we work with all people, valuing education as a key building block for a bright future for all the children. We will make learning available at home, especially for those of pre-school age and those who do not have access to school.
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Healthy homes for 2000 more people
The Seventh Day Adventists bring benefits to people all over the world through the Adventist Development and Relief Agency(ADRA)and their partners. We have had the good fortune to get to know the leadership of the Tanzanian branch of ADRA.
Representatives met with members of the Maasai Stoves & Solar Installation team in Monduli. ADRA leaders reported that they were impressed with the way women are central to the Project, and how they are deeply committed to their communities.
 ADRA Tanzania and ICSEE(T) are now partnering to bring more than 100 stoves to each of three new villages. Together with your support, ADRA Germany is providing funds to launch the Project in Mungere, Mbuyuni, and Meserani villages.
Training the women in these villages will be starting soon, and the funds from Germany will be well used to bring healthy clean homes to at least another 2000 Maasai women and children. Thank you to ADRA Tanzania, and to all our generous donors who make this work possible.
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For a better life for the rural world, and a cleaner environment for all
Worldwide Headquarters
International Collaborative, Maasai Stoves & Solar Project
81 Kirkland Street, Unit 2, Cambridge, MA 02138
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