African Roots Foundation

Make a Difference…

Millions in Tanzania live without reliable access to electricity and most burn dangerous, unhealthy, polluting and expensive kerosene lamps for light. These can easily be replaced with small scale, affordable solar products – leading to a cleaner, healthier, more prosperous community. (more…)

A quick update on our quest for a sustainable source of electricity for the people of Esilalei. Last week was spent installing solar panels at the Bush2Beach semi-luxury Permanent Tented Camps at Karatu and Esilalei, which gave us the perfect opportunity to move forward on the community solar project next to the Esilalei camp. (more…)

Our community centre in Esilalei is a useful space for the community to meet, to have workshops and even more so, for the children and adults to study.

The one thing limiting this however, is the fact that here – around the equator – the sun sets around 6:30 every day, and everything is in darkness until the following morning. (more…)

Esilalei is a village in Northern Tanzania located in the heart of Maasai land. Situated on sloping hills overlooking Lake Manyara National Park and the Great Rift Valley, the Maasai’s livelihood still largely depends on cattle herding. With a per capita income of about $1 a day, the primary focus of families is on providing for the basic needs (food and shelter). For many, providing education for their children is something they simply can’t afford.

In 2007, ARF started working with the community leaders and local residents on a community development program, aiming to improve the available opportunities of the community involved. (more…)

Some news from our coastal project area just South of the Pangani river, in Kikokwe. A volunteer recently started a small vegetable garden by installing a drip-irrigation system out of locally available materials.  This garden is operating as a showcase for the community of Pangani, demonstrating how to improve the quality of people’s daily diet with very little investment.

Back home in the United Kingdom this volunteer is a teacher and with his memories still fresh he started collecting some lesson materials like pencils and coloring books which he sent to our ARF headquarters in Arusha. As soon as someone went out again to the school in Kikokwe, we handed over the materials to the primary school there. (more…)