This project is done in conjunction with Cal Poly’s Appropriate Technology Class, Winter 2024
Hi! We're Group 1 from PSC 391—Appropriate Technology for the World's People: Development. This main project in this class is to work with a collaborating community to tackle a particular challenge.
Our group is focused on supporting the empowerment of Maasai girls. A bit of background: the Maasai tribe is an ethnic group living in Kenya and northern Tanzania. Maasai women face oppression in multiple forms, given the deeply patriarchal nature of their society. As a result, women may have many children that the husband often doesn’t provide for, burdening the mothers further. One way to fight this oppression is through education, which serves as a pathway to escape poverty, enhance income, boost self-confidence, and elevate overall quality of life.
To support their empowerment, which is spearheaded by our collaborator Mesha, we have created an informative website with details about Maasai culture and Mesha's activist work, specifically within schools. Hopefully, the website will serve to spread awareness about the cause and be useful to Mesha (for example, if she wants something to show to potential donors), since there is currently little to no information about this cause online.
Our connection to Mesha is through Pete Schwartz (our professor), who met her on his sabbatical trip 2022-2023. Here is an excerpt of his Blog (see Friday, Dec. 30) from the time he was in Tanzania.