Maasai Guide Training Camp

One of the first goals of Adumu Impact will be to establish a guide training camp at the site of the first co-op lodge. The safari tourism industry in East Africa is highly profitable, but local Maasai see a minute percentage of the economic benefits. Despite having intimate knowledge of the wildlife and landscapes, Maasai can’t afford guide training. Additionally, to be contracted as a guide, one must own or have access to a 4×4 vehicle, creating a further barrier to Maasai.

Planned to launch in 2021, the Adumu Impact guide training program strives to recruit 16 Maasai, at least 50% of which are women. Completion of the program will certify their knowledge of:

  • Western scientific understandings of savannah ecology and conservation biology
  • Traditional ecological knowledge of the Maasai
  • Maasai history and land rights
  • Flora and fauna identification
  • Walking, biking, and driving safaris
  • English, public speaking, and science communication
  • Computer and camera skills

They will also be provided access to 4×4 vehicles so they can be employed by Adumu Safaris or contracted by other companies.

Conveniently located at a lodge, the training program will provide hands-on experience working with tourists. It also provides us with the opportunity to train Maasai in hospitality, management, and culinary arts.

Through this program, Adumu Impact hopes not only to alleviate poverty amongst Maasai, but also to pioneer a Maasai owned and operated safari industry. Maasai self-determination is critical to their cultural survival and the survival of the extraordinary wildlife and landscapes that make tourism to the region so popular.

Maasai Owned Lodges

The vast majority of tourist camps and lodges in East Africa are owned and managed by foreign companies. In some cases, these companies pay a lease fee to the local community for use of their land. However, in other cases, Maasai are forcibly and violently evicted from their land.

Adumu Impact plants to build lodges by 2025, the first of which will be in the Karatu area of northern Tanzania. They will be cooperatively owned and managed by nearby Maasai villages. They will also be zero-carbon footprint to minimize environmental impact. The first lodge will also be the site of our Maasai Guide Training Program.

Construction is planned to begin in summer 2021.

Cultural Centers

Before colonizers arrived, Maasai tribes occupied the most fertile areas of East Africa. Now, like many indigenous groups around the world, Maasai culture is being threatened by rapid assimilation. The economic pressures of globalization are forcing them to abandon their semi-nomadic, pastoral way of life as well as the associated traditions, knowledge, and values.

Alongside our various efforts towards Maasai economic empowerment, Adumu Impact seeks to preserve Maasai culture for future generations by building cultural centers. These centers will act as an analog to Sunday school, safeguarding the traditional knowledge and stories of community elders.

They will also act as embassies from which to welcome visitors and teach them about Maasai culture, history, and language.

Community Conservation Areas

The ultimate goal of Adumu Impact is to reassert Maasai land rights by buying back their traditional homelands. Within decades of their arrival, colonizers had taken two-thirds of their land, pushing them into less fertile areas. Today, foreign investors continue that colonial legacy by purchasing or violently evicting Maasai from their land. These human rights violations often receive little media attention.

With the profits from Adumu Safaris, Adumu Impact will purchase land and return it to the Maasai to form a new wildlife management area (WMA) in Northern Tanzania. The WMA will augment wildlife migration corridors for the conservation of wildlife. Additionally, the WMA will support nature-based livelihoods in conservation and tourism for up to 50,000 people. This will include 200 Maasai warriors trained to protect animals from poaching.

Protecting Maasai indigenous land rights is the most important step towards Maasai empowerment and self-determination. At Adumu Impact, we strongly believe that there is tremendous opportunity in leveraging the highly profitable safari industry to the benefit of the people who have inhabited the land for centuries – the Maasai.

COVID-19 Relief

As the COVID-19 pandemic spread rapidly throughout the world, we at Adumu Impact wanted to do our part to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in Maasai communities.

To the Emburbul Maasai community in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority, we delivered:

  • Bar soaps to the 2,125 members of the community
  • 3 washing buckets with faucets
  • 56 cloth masks made of Maasai cloth by the women’s sewing collective

To the Legijave Maasai community, we delivered:

  • Bar soaps to the 250 members of the community
  • 1 locally made hand washing machine

Learn more about these efforts HERE.