Nashipay Maasai Initiatives (NMI) – create education opportunities for rural people, fight against poverty and preserve the natural environment

Reduce

poverty and associated injustices

Create

opportunities through education

Conserve

Biological diversity and using natural resources in a sustainable manner

NASHIPAY
MAASAI INITIATIVES

Nashipay Maasai Initiatives (NMI) is a not-for-profit civil society organisation that struggles to empower pastoralists of Makuyuni and beyond by promoting and supporting appropriate education, nature conservation that respects community rights and sustainable livelihoods.

At the midst of all, we help communities to tackle rural poverty and especially making sure that rural women have access to and control of economic resources, including land, and influence over markets and investments to ensure sustainable food security and resilience to disasters, especially those induced by climate change.

“We are committed to gender equity and inclusion, and to upholding the dignity of all those we work with.”

Nashipay Maasai Initiatives is a Tanzania registered NGO lead by the Makuyuni Maasai Council of Elders. In all its work – as an NGO in its engagement with partners national and internationally, NMI is always guided by the values of the Maasai community.

Central to our work is our community to our culture. For millennia we have depended on each other for our wellbeing and even now we work together, always considering the community as a whole as we make decisions. We work very consultatively and collaboratively, taking the time needed to listen to and consider the perspectives of all community members interested in an issue.

We truly value the opportunity to work with international donors as colleagues and as partners. We are always seeking relationships where the values and ways of working of a donor align with our culture and our ways of working. As a very old culture, we are wise in many ways including both building our own ways of know and learning new ways that will complement our culture.

Our culture and our wellbeing as Maasai will always be more important to us. We will always chose the integrity of our community and our culture. These principles guide us in seeking donors, partners and funders who want to work with us; who appreciate the depth of knowledge and skill we can bring to projects as well as our curiosity and openness to learning new ways of approaching a problem.

Our Council of Elders requires that all our work with international partners place the Maasai culture at the centre of our work. This means we want to share and teach our ways of knowing as we work alongside international colleagues. We have a vision of a resilient, self sustaining informed community able to adapt, thrive and engage creatively with contemporary Tanzania and indeed the whole world. Our school, our accommodation and cultural centre, our permaculture gardens and our women’s entrepreneurial groups are evidence of the capacity we have and continue to grow as we work towards this vision.

We welcome relationships with organizations and donors who want to work with us in a relationship of mutual respect and collaboration grounded in our Maasai cultural heritage.