Community Outreach

EdPowerment’s educational focus extends to initiatives that support the well being of the surrounding community.

The Malnutrition Prevention Program delivers bundles of food basics to families of children formally identified by local authorities as suffering from extreme hunger. Local management has even facilitated medical interventions in worst cases. The goal is to enable students in even the poorest circumstances to access formal learning.

Addressing a very different call, EdPowerment is now in its 4 th year of mentoring for a small women’s group – UWAMA – whose soap-making business provides income that supplements agrarian livelihoods often hampered by unpredictable
adverse weather conditions.

MALNUTRITION PREVENTION PROGRAM

Our work expanded in 2022 when local authorities appealed to us to provide emergency food basics for some the of villages' students' families and community members suffering from acute hunger.

The area where we operate includes a full range of climates – from desert-like topography to forests near the entrance to Mt. Kilimanjaro. Since 2022, weather extremes have continued to impact the local population dependent on agriculture and livestock.  The most vulnerable families (most often without a father) cannot feed their children even one meal a day.

UPDATE 2025:

Working with school, nutrition and social service officers, EdPowerment now manages a food assistance program for the families of those students identified as suffering from severe malnutrition.

We supply semi-annual food distributions consisting of maize, beans, cooking oil and sugar to roughly 54 families, many belonging to the Maasai pastoralist community.  While some of these families reside in lower-lying areas where rainwater from the highlands has caused floods, others live in arid surroundings. Both situations result in the loss of animals and crops and even displacement.

Only through our help can these young people have the strength and focus to learn. 

Group of children standing under a tree.
Children receiving supplies outside a building.
A group of people standing around in the dirt.
A group of people standing around each other.
Family receiving food aid in rural area.
Two children standing in a doorway.
Child's arm measured for malnutrition assessment.
A group of women gathered around a bucket.
A woman is pouring something into a bucket
A group of people standing around a table.
A group of people standing around a table.
A group of women sitting at a table.

WOMEN’S SMALL BUSINESS INITIATIVE

Our education mission extends to women, many from the Maasai culture, seeking ways to earn money not linked to weather conditions and cultural restraints. 

Working through community officers, EdPowerment has assisted small women's entrepreneurial groups to develop the production and local marketing of two soap products: liquid and bar.

Our mentorship has encompassed financial and organizational guidance, product training through SIDO (Small Industries Development Organization), Moshi, and ongoing monitoring and supervision.