African Project Updates: March 2025

Our Executive Director, Mic Crenshaw, has been working with local leadership in areas of the African continent: Expanding ongoing access and education projects in Burundi, and starting a new land development project in Tanzania.

This is the latest major update to these projects since October 2024.

Sharing Skills amidst Climate Change

Food security is the driving force behind these projects in Burundi and Tanzania, where community members and local leaders are growing crops for sustenance and commerce.

Kiloriti Maasai, in center of image wearing a blue jacket with a handmade rake for tilling the dirt, stands with other workers in Tanzania.

Every year, people living in these regions are dealing with dire environmental changes: A longer drought season, followed by even heavier rains, which are causing more dangerous flash flooding. 

All that people are accomplishing — from digging canals for irrigation, to distributing fruit trees, and paving roads so workers can have better access to the farm sites — are done through the hands-on sharing of knowledge. 

In Tanzania, project lead Kiloriti Maasai is teaching regional people how to farm the land. 

Drought driven by climate change has impacted the food projects, but it has also brought opportunities for developing new skills. Irrigation and land management are the new focus of educational exchanges between Kiloriti and other project leads, local workers and international experts. Together, they're planning long-term projects that include working with engineers and satellite-generated topographical maps to help design irrigation projects suited to the changing land.

Burundi Update: Prioritizing Safety

There have been many new developments concerning Burundi. 

There has been increased fighting in the neighboring Republic of the Congo, initiated by rebel Rwandan forces. Burundi being literally in the middle between these nations is making it more dangerous for local community leaders.

Jean Claude, our lead on projects throughout Burundi, recently had to relocate with his family to Ottawa, Canada, because he feared for their safety and his own.

Jean Claude said, “You know conflict and peace is part of my expertise, so I see things coming before they materialize, and organized a pre-emptive rescue."

As conflict in neighboring Republic of the Congo is escalating, there is still much to do in Burundi to prepare. Local leaders and constituents in neighboring Rwanda are key players in accessing wealth tied to resource extraction. Because of this, Jean Claude has gotten his family to a safe place in Canada and is continuing to work with peacemakers in East African areas in DRC, Rwanda and Burundi.

“You know conflict and peace is part of my expertise, so I see things coming before they materialize, and organized a pre-emptive rescue," Jean Claude said. “I evacuated my family ahead of time and joined them later. We are in Ottawa now... Being here in these moments helps me to share information with colleagues back home safely, and organize them. They appreciate how I share information they can't have. I have been also working with my regional colleagues living in DRC, helping to bridge them with Rwandans who are working for peace in order for the Congolese to find a way out of Goma [in Democratic Republic of the Congo] when the whole world was fighting in town.”

The banana farm looking lush and full of fruit.

Tanzania update: Banana Farm thriving

In news from Tanzania, local community leader and project manager Ombeni Mollel Jackson, an artist who goes by Kiloriti Maasai, has been working diligently to keep the banana farm thriving against climate change-driven drought. His efforts have paid off, as bananas were kept healthy until recent rains returned.

Kiloriti Maasai gives a tour of a banana grove, explaining how they had to water the plants more often, so the drought conditions wouldn't kill the plants.

Kiloriti has been traveling to and from the land on a motorcycle we helped him purchase a few years ago and is hoping to upgrade to a pickup truck with our support.

The health impacts of being in traffic inhaling dust and exhaust particulates has been taking a toll on him, with frequent bouts of illness and respiratory infection. Kiloriti asked his father to sell a plot of family land so that he could put the funds towards purchasing a community member's truck.

Currently, Kiloriti relies on help from 3 to 6 farmworkers to keep the crops irrigated, fertilized and healthy. It is backbreaking work. After a day's work, Kiloriti is the sole source of transportation for each farmhand and runs them home, one at a time on the motorcycle.

With the truck, Kiloriti will be able to transport more workers at the same time, plus he'll be able to haul equipment and produce more efficiently, and it will be safer, with less exposure to harmful elements in the air. Kilo's father was able to get $7,000 for the land he sold. And, with EWOB’s help, will be able to purchase the truck. 

When Kiloriti isn't tending to crops or working on irrigation, he's known for being an artist. He recently teamed up again with cinematographer Emma Maasai to produce an incredible music video. Please enjoy and share!