The meeting focused on the severe water scarcity currently faced by the Maasai community of this area which includes 27 sub-villages (the so-called “bomas”), for an estimated total of 700-1,000 people (the number is not accurate, as the Maasai are a nomadic tribe: men are mainly shepherds or cattle-keepers and most of them come back home during the rainy season only).
Last Thursday KIHO attended a sub-village meeting at Bagamoyo Maasai community, located in the Terite area, near Ruvu village, Same District.
The meeting focused on the severe water scarcity currently faced by the Maasai community of this area which includes 27 sub-villages (the so-called “bomas”), for an estimated total of 700-1,000 people (the number is not accurate, as the Maasai are a nomadic tribe: men are mainly shepherds or cattle-keepers and most of them come back home during the rainy season only).
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With a three day visit in Chome last week, the first phase of assessing the potential of eco-cultural tourism has been concluded for KIHO. We learned many things during our visits to a traditional healer, a Maasai boma, Gonja village, Tona Lodge in Mbaga, the tourist offices in Lushoto in the Usambara mountains as well as Chome with Shengena Forest. It was very interesting to see the successes but also the challenges that other places that have tourism established to some degree face with their visitors. We hope to start soon with this project that will help the local communities to generate additional income. There is another project proposal that KIHO has submitted to the U.S. embassy last Friday. We asked for the support of a beekeeping group called Umoja wa Wafugaji Nyuki Vumari (UWAVU or “Union of the Beekeepers in Vumari”). Since 2010, UWAVU practices beekeeping in Ruvu, an area of high-tension along the Pangani river basin, an ideal place for beekeeping. In the meantime, also the Maasai community has become interested in this activity and want to join UWAVU. Consequently, they need some external support. Therefore, KIHO wrote a proposal in English for them, based on several discussions and meetings with UWAVU and the new Maasai members. They hope to receive 60 “modern” beehives, equipment and harvesting tools. On Saturday, a KIHO delegation returned from a four-day trip to different villages in Ruvu ward, located next to Pangani river basin. The area is in the lowlands in the extreme west of Same district and it is indeed very hot and dry there. Nonetheless, there is a lot of farming going on in the meantime thanks to water irrigation canals that has made the land very fertile. However, there is conflict and tension between cattle-keepers and farmers in the area. Both groups depend on water from the Pangani river (or the irrigation canals). |
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