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.
MWA project started in 2006 and at present directly benefits hundreds of Maasai women in Northern Tanzania, Arumeru and Monduli Districts. The project was designed to meet the needs of Maasai women in Arumeru, 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.
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