Thank you for your interest in Maasai Health Systems and welcome to our website. We hope to show you our fascination with the people and beautiful country of Tanzania and why we chose to become engaged in the healthcare of the Arusha area in northern Tanzania.
Who we are
First, I need to explain who we are and who we work with in Tanzania. We are a 100% volunteer staffed IRS status 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization based here in the USA. We raise funds to help promote the healthcare activities of our partners in Tanzania. The importance of the all-volunteer nature is that overhead costs are nonexistent and all of the money goes to fund our projects. Therefore, there is no overhead. Because of our small size, donors also know exactly how their money will be used. We are not a multimillion-dollar international charity where your money disappears into their enormous coffers. Finally, we are not affiliated with any other larger organization.
Appropriate Projects
It is important to be culturally appropriate and to meet the needs of the local people. The history of Africa is full of examples of well-meaning foreigners who show up in Africa with theoretically great projects that don’t fit local culture and values and don’t meet local needs. Those projects fail since they are not self-sustainable. Instead, we work with an indigenous healthcare system that knows their culture and are in the best position to determine their needs.
Partnering
For historical reasons that are explained in the history section, we have partnered with the medical operation of the North Central Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania located in Arusha. We ask them to recommend a project that we can reasonably expect to be able to fund. As an example of a reasonable request, we can replace their outdated diesel electrical generator, but can not fund the construction of a whole new hospital building. In this way, we have created a highly efficient mechanism to support the local people of Arusha in improving their healthcare system.
Donations
You can Donate to Maasai Health Systems by clicking here.
I trust you will find this website informative and meaningful. In the photo below, I am pointing to the town of Arusha in the green-shaded country of Tanzania.
Sincerely,
Donald L. Rowberg
President,
Maasai Health Systems