Society
Of The Divine Word

For the last six years, working as a pastor of the Good Shepherd Parish that takes care of 25 Maasai villages, I have identified a number of wounds. Below are some of them and the measures we are taking to heal them.

1. Male Domination – Men consider themselves more dignified than women. They consider women their handmaids in everything. All manual work is done by women. Men only make decisions. Men own all resources and property and unilaterally decide how they are utilized or dispensed, even though it is women and children who do all the work to grow wealth. To heal this wound, as an SVD mission, we have invested in log time projects such as:
   1. Educating the young generation about the dignity of women
   2. Empowering women economically
   3. Promoting the dignity of women through social interventions and other self-help projects like raring of chicken and beekeeping.
2. Polygamy – Polygamy is based on the discrimination of women. Men marry many women so that they can work to grow wealth and bear many children,which are considered part of the wealth like terms of cattle. While boys go to graze, girls are given in marriage in exchange for cows asearly as below ten years of age. To heal this wound, we sensitize the young generation by
   1. Educating them about the plan and the will of God when He created on man and woman.
   2. Educating them on benefit of having the numberof children they can give good upbring.
   3. Educating the community.unity on the benefits of educating their children
   4. Diversifying economic activities to find alternative sources of wealth apart from livestock.
3. Arranged/forced marriages – Parent are responsible for finding the first wives for their sons. Girls are married by the men their fathers have taken cows from. Due to this, men marry second wives of their choiceand most of the time leaving the first wife to fed for herself. The third and other wives are the only sources of labor, respect, and bearing children. To heal this wound, we invest in
   1. Educating the community on the challenges facing women who are left by their husbands.
   2. Empowering the youth economically to be able to pay dowry themselves, hence acquiring the liberty to decide whom to marry.
4. Early marriages and teenage pregnancies – Parents choose and pay dowry for girls as young as ten years of age to give to their sons. Men exchange their young daughters for cows. The young men and girls have no say as far as marriage is concerned. To heal this wound, we are investing in:
   1. Educating the community about children’s rights.
   2. Sensitizing the community about the physical, psychological, emotional, and mental hazards associated with early marriages and teenage pregnancies.
   3. Educating the children about their rights.
   4. Making the parish a safe haven for children in danger of forced marriage.
   5. Working with the social welfare to stop child marriage.
   6. With the help of catechists, we have invested heavily in children’s catechesis.
   7. We have children singing competitions that help to educate the community about children’s rights.
5. Poverty – Though the Maasai people keep many herds of cattle, they remain poor because cattle are not for eating but are a sign of wealth and prestige for the men. They keep local breeds of cattle, which do not give meat. much milk and take time to mature. Meat is not common in the Maasai diet, but on major occasions and celebrations such as marriages. Men go to marketplaces and celebrations to eat meat. Women and children rarely eat meat.  To heal the wound of poverty:
   1. We are educating the community about commercial cattle-keeping.
   2.  We are encouraging the people to invest in a few high-breed cattle.
   3. Educating them on using the proceeds they receive from cattle to fund other development projects, such as farming and entrepreneurship.
6. FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) –  This is done to young girls sometimes few days of age. The traditional purpose of this was to reduce sexual urge in a woman to make her faithful to her husband. We are healing this wound by:
   1. Sensitizing the community about the health hazards of FGM.
   2. Educating the community about the rights of women.
   3. Working with social welfare to curb FGM.
7. Political discrimination – The Maasai region is underdeveloped, with a scarcity of basic amenities such as water, electricity, health facilities, roads, quality education, etc. Despite the region being very productive in terms of livestock, minerals, crops, and tourism, it has remained behind in terms of development. We are trying to heal these wounds by:
   1. Empowering the young generation with education to take up leadership positions, hoping that they will bring positive changes in the future.
   2. Working with development partners and donors to facilitate quality education.
8. Discrimination of Physically and Mentally challenged people – in the olden days, having a disability in the Maasai culture was considered a curse. Many children born with disabilities were either abandoned in the forest or left without good care. Today, many are kept in houses hidden from the public and without proper care. To heal this wound:
   1. We started a forum to recognize the disabled people and during Easter take care of their medical treatment and food donations.
   2. We also connect the disabled children with special care facilities to get professional attention.
   3. We sensitize the community about the rights of the disabled people and try to dismistify some of the myths they have about disability.