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A group of Maasai women.
A Maasai woman carrying her child.
A Maasai boma.
Former District Governor Mike Beahon with a Maasai man.
Two Maasai women sharing a laugh.
A Maasai woman and her child.
Maasai Land.

The Rotary Club of Fulton, Missouri (USA), with its partners, have completed its Rotary Global Grant focused on improving the accessibility to quality healthcare for Maasai mothers and babies, thereby decreasing the rates of mother and infant mortality. Using an integrated, culturally sensitive approach, this project created an innovative, sustainable healthcare delivery model that has dramatically improved maternal and infant survival rates and overall health in targeted areas. Our project partners included:

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  • Babati Rotary Club of Tanzania

  • Rotary Clubs of District 6080 (Missouri) and other Midwestern Rotary districts

  • Three Maasai grassroots organizations - Maasai Women’s Development Organization, Loibor Siret Educational Forum, and Jamii Future Foundation

  • The Ministry of Health of Tanzania (Simanjiro District), and, the primary
    implementer of the project, 

  • Humanity for Children, a USA-based international humanitarian organization that has been working in Tanzania since 2007.

 

This “Humanitarian – Maternal/Child Health” project targeted remote health clinics in Northern Tanzania. Each clinic received solar power, basic diagnostic and laboratory equipment, training for clinic staff and over 100 traditional midwives, safe birthing kits, HFC-developed health education videos, solar-powered operating room lights (Solar Suitcase), and a fetal doppler.
 

The two remote Maasai communities targeted for this project – Loibor Siret and Kimotorok -- are in the Simanjiro District of Tanzania, near Tarangiri National Park.

Both communities have government-supported clinics that, according to the Ministry of Health, have always been under-resourced and last on their list for improvements given their remote locations, lack of electrical power, and challenges of working with traditional pastoralists.

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​This project was completed in 2025 but the Fulton Rotary Club and its partner, HFC, have built upon this project with the following initiatives over the past five years:

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  • Established three mobile health clinics to take healthcare staff to remote homesteads to vaccinate children, identify and follow pregnant women, and to provide health education outreach programs

  • Construction of three remote maternity/birthing centers

  • Creation of ERIPARE Sewing Center that employs ten women trained to create menstrual hygiene kits
    (washable/reusable menstrual pads, underwear, soap, and menstrual hygiene education).

  • Delivered menstrual hygiene workshops to over 3,000 young women. The workshops include distribution of menstrual hygiene kits.

  • Construction of Ivy’s House, a centralized birthing center serving 10,000 families with healthcare professionals, prenatal/postnatal services, and children’s health services.

  • Construction of three preschools (with toilet blocks and rainwater-catchment systems) that serve very remote villages.

  • Installation of solar-powered clean water initiatives.

  • Construction of kitchen at secondary school that serves 350 students.

  • Creation of the Technology Learning Center at the main secondary school of the region that now has 24
    computer workstations. Students have learned basic computer operations, coding, robotics, and filmmaking.

  • Development of a permaculture initiative that includes a demonstration garden, education on garden towers to grow vegetables, and nutrition education.

  • Development of Women’s Rights Initiative that promotes education and community action in the areas of child marriage, female circumcision, and domestic violence.

  • Development of a Safe/Clean Stove initiative that has installed stoves in the homes of over 400 families that replace open fires in huts with a masonry/metal firebox stove that takes the smoke out of the home.

 

The above projects and initiatives have been funded by Rotary clubs across the country, schools, churches, civic organizations, corporate foundations, and private individuals and families.

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The Rotary Club of Fulton will continue supporting development initiatives among the Maasai people in this Northern Tanzania region.  If you or your organization want to help by partnering on a project – ranging from $100 to $17,000, you can contact Dr. Bob Hanson at bobhansenwc@gmail.com or Dr. Amanda Gowin at amanda.gowin@westminster-mo.edu.

Global Grant - Saving Lives of Mothers and Babies in Tanzania

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