A New Chapter

Twende!

Robert Lange

August 2025

New kinds of participants

We are now bringing the Project to a broader range of participants. I'm very pleased to share a report from two of these new Project areas.

Oldonyosambu Theological College

The college is, located about halfway between Arusha and Longido. They already had grid service, but wanted solar backup power for their computers, printer, and refrigerator.

Knowing of our work with solar-electric systems, and frustrated with the high prices charged by others, the college invited us to visit their campus.

They asked us to analyze their electrical needs and prepare an estimate for installing a solar backup service for their administration building. We recently completed the installation  and we are talking with them about system changes they might want next.

We believe that once the college sees how reliable the system is, they will use it as their primary power source. It is possible for them to reverse the service with the electric grid backing up our solar installation, which we discussed with them. View the installation photographs in this story and at the top of the enews.

Stoves come to a new organization

We have begun a collaboration with a new organization, founded and managed by Ms. Natoiwok Saetwa, a Maasai woman and local innovator. We are confident that she will carry this work into the future

 It is a great joy to work with Natoiwok right in the Maasai village where she grew up-- Ruvurimit, in Simanjiro district.

She exemplifies a well-educated trilingual person of this region who has the courage to forge ahead into uncharted territory for herself, her family, and her village.

Living is hard in the village, but Natoiwok knows her efforts can make things better. We worked with her to drill a borehole and provide water and solar lighting for the bomas in the village. The Project has just begun the process of installing stoves in fifty homes there.  

Experienced women will come and train ten women from the village to develop expertise in stove installation. Families in the fifty homes will reap the benefits of smoke-free homes and solar-powered light.

We were pleased to discover how the work is also having an impact on a nearby village. A local brickmaker has begun making quality bricks in the dimensions necessary for the project--6500 in all. We are always happy to bring income to local innovative businesses near our work.

A message from our newest collaborator

Natoiwok (pictured above in the center, dressed in blue) wants you to know what it is really like to forge this partnership and bring this new approach to her community. She asked me to share her message with you:

From Smoke to Strength: A New Chapter in Ruvurimit

My name is Natoiwok Saetwa. I am a proud Maasai woman and the lead and board member for the Maasai Women Blazing Trails organization (MWBT). I come from the village of Ruvurimit, in Simanjiro district, where a tradition and resilience shape who we are.

In our culture, the boma is more than a home. It is where families grow, elders share wisdom, and women nurture the future. But for generations, our bomas have also been filled with smoke. Cooking over open fires inside our huts meant constant exposure to smoke that burned our eyes, made our children cough, and harmed our lungs.

We did not complain because this is how it had always been. But deep inside, many of us wished for a change.

That change is now beginning through a partnership with ICSEE (International Collaborative for Science, Education, and the Environment) Tanzania. They have brought to our village a project that offers something simple, yet life-changing: stoves with chimneys. These stoves are built right inside our huts but they carry the smoke outside, so the air inside will remain clean.

As MWBT, we women will learn how to build the stoves ourselves. We will be trained in constructing the stove step-by-step. We are excited not just to receive these stoves, but to take part in making them with our own hands.

Soon our children will sit beside the fire without coughing. Our eyes will not burn while cooking. We will no longer live in smoke-filled homes. And most importantly, we will show that we Maasai women can lead, build, and change the story of our villages.

We are proud people. We cherish our traditions, but we also embrace what brings safety and strength to our families.

To the women of MWBT, to ICSEE Tanzania, and to every mother, daughter, and grandmother who will breathe easier—we are walking this journey together.

And we are just getting started.

This project is more than just technology. It is dignity. It is health. It is pride.

Natoiwok Saetwa

Lead Woman of Maasai Women Blazing Trails (MWBT)

Ruvurimit Village, Simanjiro District

Help the people breathe easier

For a better life for rural Africans, and a cleaner environment for all

International Collaborative for Science, Education, and the Environment

Office of Programs and Development

30531 Abington Court

Laguna Niguel, CA  92677  USA

1-508-735-9176

www.internationalcollaborative.org