The Isineti Project raises its first building in Maasai land
On Congregation land in the heart of Maasai territory, in Kajiado County toward the highlands of Kilimanjaro, the Isineti Project has completed its first building. It is a modest sentence to write and a large thing to see: after years in which the project existed as boreholes, training sessions and promises, there is now a structure standing on the ground.
Isineti was conceived with twin goals: to serve the Maasai community, and to help sustain the works of the Delegation. Neither goal is subordinate to the other. The Delegation asks of its projects what St. Luigi Orione asked of his works — that they serve the poor, and that they learn to stand on their own feet.
What is already real
Long before this building, Isineti was already at work:
- Water. Free access to clean water for people and for livestock. In a pastoralist economy hit by recurring drought, this is not a service among others; it is the difference between staying and leaving.
- Agricultural training for Maasai women and youth: kitchen gardens, water management, organic fertilization. More than 15 families have been trained so far, with the support of SlovakAid and the experience of the Orione Community Training Centre.
- Basic economics and human development formation, so that what is grown can also be sold, saved and planned.
The roots of the project
Isineti is the next chapter of a story that began in 2021 with what the Delegation calls the Kilimanjaro farm: some twenty acres of fertile volcanic soil, irrigated by a solar-powered borehole, producing maize, beans, cabbages, onions, peppers and cassava. Part of the harvest feeds the children of the Orione Community Training Centre; the surplus is sold at local markets. Maasai women cultivate there without having to migrate in search of work.
Water is life, work and dignity.
The Maasai are a proud pastoralist people, and the drought that returns year after year is not asking their permission. Isineti does not propose that they stop being who they are. It proposes to walk with them toward new sources of sustenance, at their pace, on their land.
The project is just beginning. This first building is the sign that it has begun.
Read about the Isineti Project
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