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Maasai Women Art (MWA) is an informal network of Maasai women groups located in Northern Tanzania.
MWA was founded in the framework of the development projects promoted by the European NGO Istituto Oikos and its Tanzanian partner Oikos East Africa to create the conditions to enable poor rural women in Northern Tanzania to integrate into the mainstream of social and economic development, and to overcome poverty by improving their access to education and income generation opportunities, while protecting the natural environment.
Since it was established, MWA has increased Maasai women’s access to literacy courses and has fostered Maasai traditional bead and leather skills to produce marketable products as alternative income in poor rural areas. |
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Mission |
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Our mission is to fight poverty and illiteracy, to enhance the status of Maasai women in the community and to promote environmental awareness in Northern Tanzania.
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History |
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MWA project started in 2006 and at present directly benefits hundreds of Maasai women in Northern Tanzania, Arusha, Meru and Monduli Districts.
The project was designed to meet the needs of Maasai women in Arusha and Meru District, Longido and Monduli districts, of whom the overwhelming majority are illitterate and extremely poor. Rural poverty in the Maasai steppe is deeply rooted in the imbalance of what women do and what they have. They are responsible for the labour that sustains life - growing and cooking food, raising children, maintaining a house, collecting water and firewood - but this work is accorded low status and no pay. Rural Tanzanian women are a profoundly disadvantaged sub-class in one of the poorest countries in the world. Without power, money and education, they are least able to cope with rapid structural change and have less possibilities of becoming independent and self-reliant.
During the 2006 two women groups were integrated in MWA network, in total more than 100 Maasai women from the poorest rural areas of Northern Tanzania, and new groups are expected to join the network in 2007.
Since March 2007 MWA has an office in Arusha town for the co-ordination of the training, marketing and awareness raising activities with one co-ordinator and one assistant, both Maasai women.
At present an Italian Jewellery Designer, Francesca Torri Soldini, supports Maasai women in product development.
MWA logo was designed by Franco Testa.
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