Kitumusote

Website: www.kitumusote.org
E-mail: kitumusote@yahoo.com or loretu_ole@yahoo.com Volunteers: info@wanderingstarfoundation.org
Phone: Kesuma Kasikasi +255 786 342 312

Communities

Monduli is a village where the Kitumusote office located, in the Arusha region of northern Tanzania, just south of the Kenyan border. The area population is approximately 2,500 people.
Monduli Juu and Lesoit are traditional Maasai villages located in the hills above Monduli.

Who they are

Kitumusote is a grass-roots, non-government organization and registered NGO that benefits the Maasai people of Tanzania. Its sole aim is to provide education combined with appropriate, culturally sensitive research, initiatives and activities that act to relieve ignorance and poverty of the Maasai by combining indigenous/traditional knowledge with modern knowledge and skills to implement locally sustainable community based projects. Run entirely by the Maasai, Kitumusote aims to bridge the gap between local and global knowledge while maintaining tradition in order to live in a more harmonious and conscientious society.
Kitumusote means “we have discovered” in the Maasai language.

The Maasai
The Maasai are a pastoral tribe indigenous to Tanzania and Kenya who are dependent on the environment for their survival. Today, many Maasai still lead traditional lives and outsiders often misunderstand and ostracize them, even though their image is used to represent Tanzania’s cultural heritage. The Maasai are struggling to manage the effects of modernization while at the same time maintaining their cultural heritage.

What they do

Kitumusote aims to ensure the sustainability of the Maasai people’s way of life. They practice this through:
- Conserving indigenous resources
- Creating environmental awareness
- Facilitating women’s empowerment and educational opportunities
- Exploring sustainable income generating activities for Maasai women
- Sharing knowledge with outside communities and international volunteers

Specific projects include:
Kitumusote Maasai Cultual Safari
The Kitumusote Maasai Cultural Safari was developed by Kitumusote members with the goal of creating long-term sustainable income for the organization whilst sharing various aspects of Maasai daily life, customs, and traditions. Each safari is led by Kitumusote’s director, Kesuma Kasi Kasi, and includes an indepth tour of his home village as well as neighboring Maasai village, Lesoit.
Maasai Women’s Cooperative Society (MWCS)
MWCS aims to facilitate women’s empowerment and autonomy in Maasai communities. MWCS was created to build Maasai women’s self esteem and self worth and to help them find their voice so they can contribute to village meetings on social, cultural, economic and political affairs.
Community-based sustainable reforestation project
In 2004, Kitumusote started a community-based sustainable reforestation project focusing on culturally and economically valuable indigenous species.

What they offer

Kitumusote offers both community tourism activities and volunteer opportunities.
Kitumusote Maasai Cultual Safari
Activities include :
- Visit and spend the night in the Maasai villages of Lesoit and Monduli Juu
- Hike through the village mountains whilst learning about traditional medicine made from indigenous plants and trees
- Observe and participate in traditional dances with Maasai women and Maasai warriors
- Learn the art of traditional beadwork and the meaning of self adornment by Maasai women (opportunity to make and/or purchase)
- Visit a family in their boma, the standard Maasai residence that resembles an igloo
- Listen to the oral histories as told by an elder

Transportation is provided to and from Arusha. Overnight trip departs at 10am and returns at 2pm the following day. Day trip starts at 8am and returns at 6pm the same day. It takes approximately 2 hours driving time to arrive at the Maasai villages from Arusha.

Volunteer program
The volunteer program is designed to allow volunteers an opportunity to integrate into local cultural and social life.
Kitumusote is looking for volunteers who can assist the organisation with their ongoing projects that include:
- Environment education and training
- Women’s education: reading, writing, art, basic health care for women and children, basic arithmetic, English language, HIV/AIDS awareness & prevention
- Tree planting and tree/plant maintenance
- Activities for children: art, performance art, story telling, English language
- Organic agriculture: garden maintenance, livestock cultivation
- Maasai youth filmmaking project: help the Maasai preserve their culture through cinema
Volunteers may also develop their own volunteer program and may send their ideas with their application. Your ideas will be reviewed to make sure they are culturally appropriate and in accordance with chief values of conservation, preservation, education and knowledge sharing.

Volunteers should be at least 18 years of age and possess at least one year of college classes and/or a bachelor’s degree in one of the following fields: anthropology, sociology, agriculture, business administration, medicine, environmental science, botany, international development, education, geology, forestry, ecology, or film studies. Volunteers should also be in good health and be ready to live and work in an environment where there is no running water and no electricity. Proficiency in English is also required. Volunteers should show strong initiative and interest in sharing knowledge with the Maasai.

Volunteers can do a three, six or twelve week program. All the programs include an orientation as well as a crash course in basic Swahili. A proportion of your time will be spent assisting Kitumusote’s director in the Monduli office. In the six week program, all volunteers are placed in the program of their choice and are welcome to share ideas for new projects at the orientation. In the twelve week program, volunteers will spend part of their orientation week developing a working scheme for the program of their choice, and new ideas are welcome and can be shared during this time. Volunteers are encouraged to spend at least six weeks living and working in the Maasai village. Two weeks should be spent working side by side with Kitumusote’s director. In all the programs, you will have the option of taking a safari to Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti in your final week.

Location

The Kitumusote office is located in Monduli, a small village in the Arusha region of northern Tanzania, just south of the Kenyan border. Monduli is about 45 minutes from Arusha by public transport.
For Kitumusote Maasai Cultual Safari reservations, contact Kitumusote using the details provided in this profile, or the contact us page on their website. For volunteer applications, contact the Wandering Star Foundation.
Kitumusote
Monduli, Arusha
Tanzania

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What you need

- Hiking clothes
- Hiking shoes
- Warm sleepwear
- Raingear
- Hand sanitizer,
- Insect repellant with deet
- Toilet paper
- Torch
- Sleeping bag (can be rented)
- Money to by a for small gift for villagers (i.e. sugar or tea) and for crafts and jewellery from Maasai market if it is a Saturday (market day).

Accommodation & Amenities

Camping – tents and sleeping pads are provided.
In Monduli, there is limited running water, and plumbing in the form of outhouses. In Monduli Juu, there are no toilets or running water so you must be prepared for bucket bathing and outdoor toilet use.
In Monduli, there is limited electricity. In the traditional Maasai village of Monduli Juu, there is no electricity.
Tourists and volunteers are provided three meals per day. In Monduli Juu, the food will follow the Maasai traditional means of nourishment that consists of milk, maize, beans, rice, potatoes, and meat. Vegetarians can be catered for. Volunteers can also bring their own food and will be provided with kerosene cooking stoves, cooking pots, dishes and utensils. Tourists on the safari tours are provided with bottled water.
2 day safari (minimum 3 people) prices per person: TZS 255,000 per person (3 people), TZS 215,000 per person (4 people), TZS 190,000 per person (5 people). 1 day safari (minimum 2 people) prices per person: TZS 250,000 (2 people), TZS 190,000 (3 people), TZS 160,000 (4 people), TZS 150,000 (5 people), TZS 140,000 (6 people). Prices include accommodation (2 day trip), transportation, meals and water.
Volunteers: Three week program: US$ 400, Six week program: US$ 800, Twelve week program: US$ 1200. Fees include Swahili language training, full accommodation, transportation to and from Maasai village site and weekly stipend, but exclude round trip airfare, spending money and optional safari supplement.
All proceeds benefit Kitumusote’s environmental and education programs.