The Maasai Project encourages the Maasai people of Tanzania — one of the ten poorest areas in the world — to create, build and run their own infrastructure, with particular emphasis on hospital and educational facilities.

The Project has three key areas of focus:

• To build a Hospital (Selian Lutheran Hospital) to provide first class medical attention to some of the poorest people in the world
• To create and run an all-girls school to provide a nurturing, encouraging and productive environment for young girls and women, currently held back by cultural restraints
• To promote the education of young women to secondary school and beyond, encouraging them to use their knowledge and skills to benefit their community

These three endeavours, supported by over a dozen specialised training programs, are being pursued in an integrated, holistic way so that benefits gained through one activity will flow though to the others.

The Maasai Project, strongly supported by the Lutheran Church Community, The Reverend Dave Simonson, Dr. Mark Jacobson, Leon Christianakis and others from the mid-fifties on.

Like any project of this type, especially one with such a profound effect on the community and its culture, considerable effort has been required — but the results and rewards have begun to show.

The Selian Lutheran Hospital's services have been extended to the wider community through sponsorship of six secondary schools, two other hospitals and twelve rural dispensaries in the region.

A further example of the holistic work and relationships in this vision is the MaaSae Girls Lutheran Secondary School, dedicated to giving young Maasai women the education they need to benefit both themselves and the community.

The recent first graduates of the program are proving valuable role models, increasing enrolments for upcoming classes and programs through a holistic approach with escalating benefits for hospital patients, school students, young women and the wider community.