New Life Project helps local communities

One of the highlights of our 2013 World Trip was the visit to Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. In addition to seeing incredible wildlife and beautiful scenery, we had the opportunity to visit a local Masai family and learn a little about their life.

We have kept in touch with our safari guide, Mashauri, and he recently told us about a new project he started to help the community. I offered to write a blog post to spread the word. Below is an overview of the New Life Around National Park Project from Mashauri.

National Park Project

Tanzania is a very beautiful country that is blessed with many things like mountains, rivers, forests, and wildlife. Around the national parks like Serengeti, more than two million animals migrate each year sharing an ecosystem with Ngorongoro conservation area. The national parks are also home to people who live in small communities. We started New Life Around National Park in the summer of 2015 because of the two lives, human and wild animal, that share Serengeti National Park. We are currently operating as a project and hope to form an NGO when we have the resources and funds.

Community Needs in the National Parks

In the communities around the national parks, people depend on farming and pastoralism to live. They face challenges with clean water, living conditions, health care, and education.

Health Conditions and Access to Clean Water
The communities have limited access to water. The only source is a nearby river, so they live with and share water with domestic cattle. For health care, people use traditional ways of medicine, which can be dangerous. The risks are also high during childbirth because the hospital is 40 km away. In addition, some people still practice female circumcision.

Access to Education
In some areas, the children do not have access to education. When they do, some girls don’t finish their studies because they become pregnant or are forced to get married under age.

kids at Tanzania school

Our Goals

New Life Around National Park aims to help people living around the parks to change their life through education and support. Our passion is to help children with education, food, and clothes. We want to see girls and boys finish their studies without any problems. Our goals include:

  • Help children get good food, shelter, and clothes
  • Provide education needs like books and school supplies
  • Stop early marriage of young girls and help them finish their studies
  • Stop the habit of boys not finishing their studies and ending up relying on pastoralism
  • Help women start small business to help their families and empower them
  • Encourage people to stop using fire wood for cooking and help them use solar and bio gas to improve health conditions and the environment
  • Educate people to protect the environment

Masai woman and child

Our Accomplishments

So far, we have helped 12 children around Serengeti National Park by providing school supplies (pens, books, rulers) and teaching them how to protect the environment and their surroundings. We’ve also had some fun and taught them sports. We have met their parents to see how they live in their homes and found that even they need education and support to help their children, for example to create small businesses.

Tanzania school

How You can Help

If you have a passion for helping children and local communities, there are many ways you can help.

  • Spread the word on social media: encourage people to tell their friends about the project
  • Donate: money, clothes, school supplies, solar and bio gas for cooking
  • Volunteer: fundraising, help with the process to register as an NGO, visit Tanzania to share your expertise in an area of need, recruit volunteers who have expertise in an area of need

Contact New Life Project

Mashauri Joseph Nhambu
Mashauri07@gmail.com
+255 767 269 590/+255 786 269 590
Box 14139
Arusha, Tanzania

Tanzania-girl

Thoughts from Lori

When Masha took us to the Masai community, it was an eye-opening experience to see how the families lived (see details in the blog post). I think the New Life Around National Park project addresses important needs in the national park communities.

If you are interested in helping, there are many options to have an impact – even from the other side of the world. I have been a volunteer with a NGO in Uganda, Community Based Tourism Initiative (COBATI) since 2011.

Feel free to contact Masha by email if you have questions about the project or how you can get involved.