Women project aims to support the poor women of Tanzania by running different income-generating activities. Presently, we are collaborating with ILKDNGA, a local NGO in Tanzania which runs various programs which promote cultural tourism programs for the Masai people. As a part of its program, they similarly run a women's project which primarily teaches and trains local Masai women to make beads, crafts, and handicrafts. Local Masai women sell these products in local markets ultimately generating some income for their families. In addition to income generation, this women's group also provides housing (masai type) for both local widows and extremely poor women.

Volunteer roles

Though local Masai women are making hard efforts to generate extra income by making Masai crafts, beads, and handicrafts and selling these products in tourist markets, their working style is lacks a refined degree of professionalism. In addition, most Masai women are uneducated and need both help and leadership.

As a result, there are many areas where volunteers can involve themselves and support their activities.

•  If you are artist or professional with skills pertaining to crafts, beads, ornaments, and handicrafts, you can teach them the recent techniques/designs trends which will ensure improved products resulting in the successful selling of their products in various markets.
•  If you are non-professional simply wanting to work and support these Masai women, you can work with them learning how to make Masai crafts, beads, ornaments. It would indeed be quite a wonderful experience to work with one of the native tribes which respect foreigners.
•  The Masai women's group also need volunteers to assist in learn/teaching English which will give these women the advantage of speaking with tourists and selling their products directly. Volunteers can also run an informal English language class for the Masai women.
•  If you have knowledge and skills about marketing, these skills can help the Masai women to develop marketing strategies, helping them to sell their products in both national and international market.
•  Besides the women's group, you can run English language classes for Masai children and local youth (with little English knowledge, the Masai youth can work as tourist guides making additional income contributions to the family).

Generally, the head of the local organization develops a work plan for volunteers upon arrival. The daily work plan depends up on the individual skills, interest, and knowledge of volunteers.

Skills/Qualifications Needed

There is no need for specific qualifications to join the women's support project. If volunteers possess skills with crafts, beads, and arts, this would prove highly useful. Volunteers can support local Masai women in various ways on various levels. Volunteers working in this project should be interested in native women and their culture.

Room/Food/Supervision

Global Crossroad manages room/food for volunteers. In most of the cases, volunteers stay with host families where a separate room is managed along with local food provided three times a day. Volunteers usually share bath and toilet facilities with their respective host families. Global Crossroad maintains four (4) local staff members, an office, and a hostel in Dar Es Salaam . Three (3) of our staff members reside in Dar Es Salaam and our other on-site coordinator resides in the city of Moshi . Our field staff members visit volunteers every two weeks (where it is possible). However, ILKDNGA's women project is nearly 7 KM far from Arusha (at the base of Mt. Meru ) and road is very rough. For this particular project, our in-field staff coordinator may not have the opportunity to visit volunteers every two weeks. She/he will maintain contact via email and/or phone. In addition, the Head of the ILKDNGA serves as the local contact person for volunteers.

Location Descriptions

In Tanzania , women project is located in Arusha. However, our language program takes place in Dar Es Salaam . Serving as both the capital and as a also a major port city, Dar Es Salaam is the natural starting point for volunteer experiences in Tanzania . Located near Mount Kilimanjaro, Dodoma and Zanzibar , Dar boasts numerous, beautiful beaches which are usually easily accessible from the city, namely Kunduchi, Mjimwena and Mbwa Magi.

Arusha is one of the bigger cities in the north of Tanzania  at the base of Mt. Meru , not far from the border with Kenya . It is well known as an African congress center containing the site for the International Tribunal for the Rwandese Genocide. Safari tours to the Serengeti, N'gorongoro, Manyara, and Tarangire usually begin in Arusha. The city is also an excellent base for visiting the Arusha National Park , where volunteers can experience a wide range of habitats: from the lakes which serve as a gathering point for a kaleidoscope of waterfowl, to the highland montane forests, all the way up to the imposing summit of Mt. Meru . Moshi is approximately an hour-and-a-half (90 minutes) drive from Arusha.