Maasai people in Tanzania have historically been nomadic, finding their food (mainly meat and milk) as they migrated around East Africa with their livestock. But now they are settling down. The problem is that they have no cultural knowledge about farming.
When I visited them a few years ago, they were anxious to learn about vegetables, because they had heard that they promoted good health. They were hours’ walking time from any produce stand and couldn’t afford to buy them even if they could reach one. They do not live in a cash economy. They wanted to learn how to grow them.
Fortunately, The Global Uplift Project has helped our partner there, Humanity for Children, set up demonstration gardens to teach local people how to grow vegetables. This includes “Garden Towers” that produce a continuous profusion of fresh vegetables in the smallest space imaginable and at the lowest cost possible.
The Serengeti in western Tanzania (and in southern Kenya where it is called the Mara) is one of the largest natural open game habitats in the world. It is the home to the Maasai, a tribe which for millennia have been migrant herders, shepherding cows, goats, and sheep while moving in constant search of water and forage.
When the Maasai do settle, they build circular huts of mud, animal dung, sticks, and leaves. These “bomas” are inexpensive and easily assembled, yet durable. Inside the huts, the Maasai make small, open fires, for warmth and cooking.
Their diet consists mainly of meat, milk, and cornmeal, and lacks any fruits or vegetables. The elderly and children are frequently malnourished, leading to dwarfism and suppressed immune systems.
TGUP’s partner in Tanzania, Humanity for Children, has set up garden training centers where Maasai gather (mostly women and children) to learn the health benefits of a more varied diet, along with how to grow and cook vegetables.
They are taught traditional in-ground growing methods, as well as how to use a Garden Tower. After the training session, each family is given 1-2 Garden Towers. These towers are specifically designed to conserve water and space. They require only 6 feet of space and use 30% less water than traditional gardening.
Below are photos from garden towers that YOU funded!
When a family shows stewardship over their Garden Tower, they are eligible to apply for a Chicken Enterprise, which includes a rooster and 5 egg-laying chickens. The family is taught how to breed and raise chickens, sell eggs, and use the income to rise above the $1.90/day poverty line.
Each Garden Tower comes with seedlings and good growing soil. Maasai live in groups of bomas, where they share their food and child caring. Each Tower produces enough vegetables for at least 15 people and can be reused and replanted indefinitely. Water is sourced locally, and the fertilizer come from the fields where cows graze.
Herbs, strawberries, green onions, varieties of lettuce, broccoli, kale, beans, tomatoes, zucchini, cabbages are all typical of what is planted.
Thank you for your generosity!
