Empowering women by teaching them how to invest and fund their own community projects is the first step towards economic independence, and sustainable hope for the future.
How the Olmoti experience renewed one Doctor's passion to serve.
We recently rediscovered an article written by pediatrician, Jennifer Bass, MD, who treated patients at Olmoti a few years back. She explains how little time Western medicine allows for patient interaction, with its emphasis on paperwork and protocols, and how a return to simple record keeping and human touch reaffirmed her commitment to healing.
Olmoti Residents—Helping Themselves
From the seed of an idea to a mighty tree
Once in a while, an idea takes root that winds up having long-term effects beyond our wildest dreams. For me, that idea was the notion to accept Olmoti midwife YAYA’s challenge to help reduce the mortality rates for pregnant women and their babies in a remote area of Tanzania, where there were no medical facilities for many miles.
(If you’re a friend of Olmoti Clinic, you are familiar with our story, and if you’ve forgotten some of that story, you can refresh your memory here.)
But recently I’ve become aware that, after 13 years of support—building classrooms for 663 elementary students, building and staffing an award-winning health center, funding projects like fresh water, solar power, vaccinations, and much more, the village has grown, matured and taken ownership in ways we never could have anticipated.
A major shift is underway.
While still preserving the ancient Maasai customs and values, the villagers have successfully weathered a series of obstacles and learned some essential new skills in the process. Let me tell you some exciting news that reassures me that the residents of Olmoti are now better prepared to come together and participate in solutions to life’s problems than they’ve ever been before.
1. Meet our first elementary school graduating class!
Olmoti School’s first graduating class of 7th graders proudly poses to mark the historic day. The entire village came together to celebrate their achievement with a feast, music, dance, speeches, cake, and more. Funds from donations and Olmoti Safari make sure that any student who passes their secondary school tests will be able to afford the cost of books, bedding, supplies, and sundries at secondary school. With this kind of community support, these children are off to a great start in life.
2. Women are making money for the first time in their lives
The women of Olmoti are dynamos. In past communications I’ve told you about their sewing projects, raising chickens, making soap, and other enterprises. AND NOW they’re forming women’s groups, meeting with organizers under the Learning Tree and beginning to invest in micro-loans to earn interest and acquire low-interest loans to fund their growing enterprises. As they gain confidence in their ability to acquire new entrepreneurial skills, the Olmoti women are envisioning a brighter future for themselves and their children.
3. Men are exploring important new roles
The Maasai have long embraced animal husbandry over crop growing, but last year's drought brought the death of many animals and threatened their traditional way of life. We were able to supplement the villager’s diet with dried maize, which helped them survive the famine, but the need for a more reliable food source became evident. With the help of agricultural consultants, the men are learning about more sustainable livestock practices and have prepared fenced growing beds near the village planted with food crops. In addition, the warriors have formed their own investment groups and are enthusiastically embracing these new economic opportunities.
The men have also started a local market at a nearby crossroad to sell items to surrounding villages. People come from miles around because the prices are quite reasonable.
4. The health and economy of Olmoti are improving.
I recently met with the women in the house they built for their projects. They showed off their growing sewing skills and asked for some more machines, as more women were showing an interest in learning this new enterprise. These are simple treadle machines—nothing fancy—but now they can sew school uniforms, sanitary pads, and other essential items.
New initiatives and changing attitudes are helping improve the health and economic outlook for all. A village-wide program to pay women to install smokeless cook stoves has improved air quality and greatly reduced the need to chop and carry large quantities of wood for open pit fires. In addition, a newly launched solar light project for the huts will provide children with enough light to read after dark.
You can feel the energy and optimism in the air as people find their purpose, set new goals, and discover new ways to work together. Everyone is still struggling financially…don’t get me wrong…and raising cattle, goats, and sheep is still the primary way to make a living…but things are moving in exciting new directions.
What has changed?
I believe a paradigm shift is beginning, from survival mode into growth mode. From full-on patriarchy to empowering women. All of you who have contributed to the ongoing costs of the school and health center, playground, water projects, and more have helped bring about this change.
Now that physiological needs for water, shelter, clothing, basic healthcare and safety are being met, the villagers can look forward, valuing their strength, independence, and self-actualization. The residents’ pride in these early accomplishment are evident in their posture and on their faces, as these photos demonstrate.
Please don’t think for a moment that our work is over. There will always be funds to match, projects to get off the ground, teachers to house, school and medical supplies to buy, and a million other things that we continue to juggle every day. However I am beyond delighted to report to you that the sustained efforts we have invested in the community are beginning to result in greater initiative and tangible examples of independence and innovation.
As I close this newsletter, I ask for three things from you.
1. Please follow us on Instagram and Facebook AND share some of our posts with your friends. It’s important that we build our following so more people hear about our projects and are inspired to help support our (your) efforts. This costs nothing…if everyone on our newsletter list shared just one of our posts per week, we could take a major leap forward with our communications efforts.
2. Please plan to join us on an Olmoti Safari in 2024 or, if this isn’t the year for you, share our itinerary with people you know. Next year, we’re adding two days to the safari so attendees can customize their experience and have more time to truly experience the beauty of Tanzania and the Maasai who live in our village.
3. We are developing a WISH LIST of concrete items that help our residents learn and grow and will publish it in the months ahead. We hope you will find an item or two you would like to donate…everything from a sack of maize to a packet of school supplies to a new sewing machine will be put to good use and heartily appreciated.
Thank you!
And special thanks to Robert Lange, who leads the Maasai Stove and Solar project, Mesha Singolyo, who teaches bookkeeping and records management to our investment groups, and Kisioki Moitiki, who runs the stove shop, for empowering independence in our residents. See the full scope of their programs at www.internationalcollaborative.org.
With appreciation, Diane Raleigh
Help us Bring Smokeless Stoves to the Entire Village.
2022—A Year to Celebrate
2022 was an important year at Olmoti Village. Thanks to the generosity of our donors and hard-working residents, we made significant strides to improve the health, education, opportunities, and quality of life of our people. We welcome your donations at www.olmoticlinic.org/donate.
Dr. Raleigh's Olmoti Clinic in the News
Read the entire story here.
Kids Gotta Play!
OLMOTI STUDENTS GET A PLAYGROUND OF THEIR OWN
Children racing around a playground—swinging, sliding, jumping. What could be more natural? The kids at Olmoti School are experiencing that reality—for the very first time on a playground of their own. They also have a new soccer field, and have already formed a team to play against local villages.
Physical exercise is part of Olmoti Clinic’s healthy commitment to our Maasai school children.
When Olmoti Clinic/Our One Community built the school in 2015, starting with just two classrooms, the village families were elated to have a school close enough to allow their young children to attend. We’ve expanded to four grades, with the addition of four classrooms. But the more than 400 students who come to learn every day have never had a place to play except the dusty, rough terrain of this isolated Tanzanian region. Until now.
The kids’ play world is a whole new landscape of fun, thanks to the wonderful assistance of the nonprofit One Dollar for Life, ODFL. ODFL promotes and practices altruism by building small-scale, high impact projects in the developing world, improving life for some of the globe’s poorest populations. Knowing the developmental importance of play, both organized and free-form, for young children, the organization offered Olmoti School its expertise to build and help fund our first playground. Matching funds with those contributed by OlmotiClinic donors, ODFL installed eight swings, four slides, four seesaws, climbing structures and a regulation-sized soccer field that now gets a workout from the school’s fledgling but fierce soccer team.
ODFL’s founder, Robert Freeman, visited Olmoti to view the playground, and was received with heartfelt gratitude by the local families. We are so grateful to ODFL for their support for this and other invaluable projects.
And no one is more thrilled than the kids themselves.
Elizabeth Jonas Receives Scholarship to Teacher's School
Olmoti Clinic supporter Nancy Oliver Hutchinson cried on learning that her family and friends would establish the Nancy Oliver Hutchinson Fund in her memory, and that it would help Maasai youth achieve their educational dreams. That would be “like sending a light into the world” Nancy said.
Elizabeth Jonas, a committed young Maasai, is now carrying that light into the world. Elizabeth is the first recipient of the Nancy Oliver Hutchinson scholarship. She will use the award to earn her teaching degree at Moshi Teachers College.
Orphaned at age 3, Elizabeth was raised by extended family of our Olmoti Clinic medical director, Dr. Richard Kambi. She excelled in school, including in physics, chemistry and biology, but, like most Maasai young people, lacked resources for higher education. Fluent in English, Swahili and Maa, she entered community service as a high school chemistry and biology volunteer teacher. She is dedicated to serving her community by helping young people transform their futures through education.
Now 26, Elizabeth was selected for the scholarship on the basis of her academic qualifications, dedication to the field of education and determination to succeed. Nancy Oliver Hutchinson would be proud of this young woman and delighted to help her realize her dream.
Donations to the Nancy Oliver Hutchinson Fund will enable us to support more wonderful young people like Elizabeth. Every contribution counts.
On TV in Tanzania
All Eyes on Progress of Olmoti Clinic
A new clinic, health center, and school are transforming this Maasai village. Click the image to watch the video.
Our decade of work with the Maasai received tremendous recognition this summer. Hundreds of Maasai, Tanzanian officials, and guests came for a grand celebration of our health and education programs—including our new surgery Health Center and the completion of our 7-grade elementary school.
Dr. Diane Raleigh, CEO, and board member Susan Finlay Marrinan were on hand with our medical and education staff to greet guests, including the Honorable Josephat Kandege, representative in the president's office, and Honorable Dr. Steven Lotuses, member of Parliament.
A jubilant day of Maasai singing and dancing accompanied the speeches and facility tours. The Olmoti community's dignity, pride, and support for our ongoing projects are truly inspirational.
Please help us bring life-saving healthcare, education, and employment opportunities to this remarkable community.
A Visiting Doctor's Lessons
Dr. Jenny Bass treats a child at Olmoti Clinic
Dr. Jennifer Bass of Portland, Oregon, has published a moving article about her time volunteering at Olmoti Clinic this past summer, an experience, she says, that “rekindled my joy in being a pediatrician.”
“I have been a pediatrician for more than 20 years and love my chosen profession,” she writes in her article “Teachable Moments from the Maasai” in the journal Academic Pediatrics. But she’s sometimes felt “underappreciated” -- spending too much energy with parents who refuse vaccines, pressured by short, rushed visits, pushed to see more patients, chained to electronic chartHer experience with the Maasai could not have been more different – though initially she had some doubts: “What could I really do to help?” she writes. “How would I manage without my computer, access to online resources, and similar colleagues? How would I relate to people who were so different?”
Her worries soon faded. She treated 100 children over four days, some coming from as far away as Kenya to see a western doctor. The clinic’s medical officer, Peter, served as translator.
“Unlike my practice in the United States, where my medical assistant asks for the chief complaint, takes the vital signs, and has the patient undress, Peter and I did everything ourselves,” Dr. Bass writes. “Freed from extensive charting, almost all our time was focused on engaging with patients” and using observation skills needed in the absence of electronic records and staff help. Most common were respiratory conditions caused by indoor open-fire cooking. She advised Olmoti’s staff on current standard-of-care medicines.
“I had no set schedule and no agenda other than addressing the current issues that each family brought to me,” Dr. Bass recalls. “The line stretched far out the door, but people waited calmly, without impatience. Working under these conditions was a pleasure. It reminded me of the reasons I became a pediatrician and taught me to stop worrying so much about time.”
“For most families, I offered reassurance that everything appropriate was being done for their child. Even though I often didn’t do or add much, the families seemed to feel better after a visit with me. At the end of each child’s exam, parents would thank me, and say a Maasai expression that meant sorry for bothering you.”
“For the Maasai, I was a connection to Western medicine, a healer, and a teacher.” She’s carried a bit of Maasai culture home, both in the beaded, jingly necklace the people gave her, and in her approach with her patients -- taking a bit more time to sit with them. “I will read part of a book with the younger ones or talk with the older ones about what they like to do for fun.”
Working with the Maasai, she says, “reminded me of the special power that comes with being a physician. As pediatricians, parents trust us with their children.”
Read Dr. Bass’ full article here
Volunteer Doctor Conducts HIV Screening
HIV specialist Dr. Joe Caperna.
The Olmoti community and surrounding villages received a vital new medical service this summer, thanks to the efforts of Dr. Joe Caperna, an HIV specialist from San Diego. Visiting the region through Olmoti Clinic's arrangements, Dr. Caperna engaged a highly receptive community in a once-taboo subject: HIV-AIDS. The doctor conducted 10 days of educational outreach and testing.
He tested hundreds of people and we were happy to find just small incidence of the disease: Of 743 men, women and children tested, Dr. Caperna found six HIV cases, an encouraging result at less than 1 percent of the population.
During the educational presentations, the Maasai asked many questions about prevention, treatment and consequences for sex and reproduction. It is difficult to overstate the magnitude of this milestone – bringing these topics into the open – for the health of the community. Now the Maasai in this region are prepared to decrease the stigma and take advantage of prevention and treatment advances for an HIV-free environment.
A Village Center Emerges
Aerial view of the new Health Center
The construction of our new Health Center, with surgery facilities and wards, has been truly exciting, and an aerial view shows just how dramatically our work has changed Olmoti. Where once there was only windswept scrub, a village center has emerged. The community uses our school and clinic for meetings and organizing as well as for health needs and to educate 240 children!
The photo shows the three new buildings (under construction in this photo, but completed since) and our Olmoti clinic forming a quad in the foreground. In the background are the medical staff housing, doctor's house, teachers' housing, and on the far right our primary school!
Ultrasound Training With SonoSim in Tanzania
SonoSim was introduced to the clinic by Dr. Jeff Gold of Oregon, providing ultrasound education to our doctors and medical staff.