Chillin with the Maasai Massive...

This was our first opportunity to visit one of Tackle Africa’s partners since we arrived on the continent. It is important to us that we capture as much footage of the work Tackle Africa (www.tackleafrica.org) is doing as possible as they have been huge supporters of what we’re doing here. So it was great relief that we met Daniel Falau of the Simba Maasai Outreach Organisation in Nairobi who arranged for us to go and see how Tackle Africa’s coaching manual was helping to educate a local community (Oloshoibor) about HIV outside Nairobi.

We arrived very late in the evening after driving off the beaten track for a fair few miles. We didn’t know quite what to expect as we thought we would be camping in our tents outside the community but instead we were given mud huts to rest in. They had beds inside which were gratefully received as we needed a good night’s sleep.

The next day we interviewed Daniel about his work within the organisation. He is the manager and is responsible for different programmes designed to involve the local Maasai in a variety of issues, including health, environment and politics. We also interviewed a football coach (James Lamayian) who was using the manual to teach the young people about HIV. He had been coached by some of the Tackle Africa coaches who had visited the region last year. The outreach programme was set up to help integrate the Maasai community in to the region and to give them a platform to voice their worries and concerns about modern day Kenya. They also needed help in understanding HIV and how it works and this is why the organisation asked for Tackle Africa’s help as they believe sport is the best way of reaching the young people in the area. We also interviewed Michael Tiameati , who is a journalist trained by Reuters and a friend of Daniel, who spoke passionately about the problems the Maasai are facing in today’s world and what is being done to combat these problems.

We spent the day asking questions about the Maasai people and finding out how effective the manual has been in educating the local community about HIV. We visited a local school and filmed the coach using the manual with some of the young football players. 

It was a great insight in to how the manual is being integrated in to the community and to see at first hand how effective it is in communicating the messages of HIV. We were also privileged to learn a lot about the Maasai community here and how they are learning to adapt to the modern world. Unfortunately because of our schedule we could only spend a day here but it was definitely a very fulfilling one.

We then spent the rest of the evening watching Ed trying to find his phone in the dark which was very amusing but ultimately fruitless....................until the next day when it dropped down through the sunroof!

 

Andy

Comments

[Manchester United]

Well written article, and I agree entirely. Thank you for your fresh point of view. Keep up the good work.