Samburu partners in development is a not for profit organization based in USA founded to help improve the life of nomadic pastrolist samburu community a population of 150,000 people in Kenya north rift region. Samburu are cousins to Masai tribe of east Africa with common maa speaking language's. samburu developed from one of the later nilotic migrations from the Sudan,as part of the plains nilotic movement. The broader grouping of the maa-speaking people continued moving south,possibly under the pressure of the borana expansion into their plains. The samburu are in early settlement area of the maa group,those who moved on south(Masai) began farming recently.
VISION.
Our ultimate goal is to partner with the samburu community in eradicating poverty,disease and illiteracy.
MISSION STATEMENT.
The samburu partners in development non governmental organization based on excellent services,creativity,integrety and honest seeks to enhance the lives of marginalised indeginous samburu people in kenyan remote north rift region through result driven organization development services designed to fight illiteracy,alleviate poverty and provide preventive ,promotive and curative health services.
VALUES
Facilitate and promote self driven development activities within the community.
Enhances programs that breed sustainability-workable programs.
uses creativity and innovative capabilities of the community.
act as a link between the government and the people in implementing its policies(government).
SPD echoes the crying voice of marginalized nomadic pastrolist community to the caring international community.
ABOUT THE SAMBURU!!
CULTURE.
The samburu live in temporary huts built using sticks/woods tied together using the bark of trees with cow dung mixed with clay as cement. the interior of the hut mostly consist of shrubs in their bed room as beds and cattle hides on top as the mattress. The dressing includes ornamental beads around their necks esp. for women,some still on animal skin as their dresses.
Samburu people still practice circumcision as a rite of passage for both men and women(FGM),forced early marriages,domestic violence,illiteracy are some of the most pressing problems experienced by the community.
The language of samburu is also called samburu. Generally 5-10 families set up camps for a few weeks or months depending on the presence of green pastures and water (typically ares receiving showers of rainfall).the stay in this particular identified region lasts for a period of time that the pasture and water can support them. This therefore sets a viscous cycle,a permanent and consistent migration pattern throughout the year.
Typical lifestyle of the samburu is organized in a highly specialized of division of labor depending with age and sex.
Older men are considered wise men and thus bestowed with the leadership role in which case they make decision regarding to the daily activities of the community for example they decide on when to move to other regions with greener pastures or water, they command and regulate young men activities like when to raid and when not to,they are considered judges in kangaroo courts,they solve cases and agree on fines to various crimes committed within the community,finally they are role models to the young men.
Women are mainly involved in daily house chores like cooking,washing clothes,taking care of kids,constructing huts for living,fetching firewoods and water and acts as educators and role models for the girls. samburu being a chauvinistic society women are considered children by men thus saluted as so. they are not allowed to make decision regarding daily activities of the village not even sharing the same meeting if it happens they are supposed to sit at the same level with kids women are rather typically expected to follow instructions.
Young men play commonly called warriors(just went through circumcision as a rite of passage ) the role of taking instruction from the elders and provide protection to the community. warriors are involved with moving around with livestocks as they move to greener pastures,they are usually accompanied by young boys who specifically are bestowed with the duty of taking care of kids and calves (the young ones of all livestocks near the manyattas(their temporary residence).
Girls spend most time with their mothers being taught how to assume the role of a woman in society this involves fetching firewood,cooking, fetching water,accompaniy their mums in duties involving hut construction and taking care of sometimes take care of animals young ones.
ECONOMIC STATUS.
The samburu are nomadic pastrolist people with their main source of food derived from animal/livestock products, main stable food being mainly meat,milk and blood. The geographical state is purely arid and semi arid Lands with annual rainfall amount of less than 6 inches,therefore migration to areas of greener pastures and water becomes their normal permanent way of life. Nature, as a result of samburu way of life places the young(children),elderly and women on a tight survival for the fittest kind of ecology, and in this respect this important special population falls under the mercy of natures climatic condition, in other words they totally depend upon the presence of water(unlimited ,poorly distributed rainfall) and green pastures to sustain livestock and therefore determining their fate. As a result children,elderly and mothers disadvantaged since they are unable to follow livestocks as they move from place to place looking for green pastures and water.
Animal rearing being the only source of income samburus are forced to sell their livestocks whenever a need arises especially in emergency cases at a throw a way price due to poor markets and unavailability of markets at their own setting so this in a nut shell is their only form of investment that can be liquidated and made available at their disposable if need be more often as i said mostly in case of emergencies.
HEALTH CARE SYSTEMS.
In consideration of samburu culture (way of life)that is being nomadic pastrolist thus moving from place to place looking for greener pasture and water, Health care system is almost nonexistence .Health problems mostly encountered in the community is more of infectious disease for example malaria,typhoid fever,tuberculosis (upsurge of TB is mainly as a result of increased HIV incidences-rate of HIV infection, coupled with other factors which include overcrowding that is 8 to 10 family members in a single Masai hut(described under housing below).
The most common causes for the rampart presence of this communicable conditions chiefly results from poor hygiene which is more as a result of insufficient or lack of clean water,poor housing. illiteracy (lack of awareness in the existence of this diseases or complete lack of enough water which is a major problem plays a major part in prevalence and spread of this diseases. This is more evidenced by members of the community using the same water for multiple purposes for example using the same water body(catchment areas for example dams) for bathing and domestic consumption at the same time sharing with domestic livestocks and up to including wild animals.
Circumcision as explained earlier as one of the most important rite of passage and most valued among the maa community plays a role in the spread of infectious and communicable diseases as a result of being performed by untrained elders recommended by the community and therefore done under non sterile conditions/procedures.
Circumcision is usually performed in groups of approximately 500- 1000 boys in a certain clan,this is done using the same surgical scalpel for all of them which is usually a knife sharpened using naturally available stones(rock) without any form of sterilization,also circumcision is done under no form of anesthesia or any post surgical analgesia.
Apart from infection other more prevalent complication includes excessive bleeding and penile amputation.
Female genital mutilation also as one of most valued cultural practice by samburu people has led to complication as explained above plus more other specific to women for example obstructed labor.
Other culturally promoted behavior that has compromised health status of the samburu includes polygamy which is regarded by men as wealth i mean wealth is measured in terms of the number of wives and children one has in this case we see more of disease transmission.
Another common and related but less practiced today as compared to old days is widow inheritance which is basically giving somebody from the same clan as the diseased the right to inherit his wife irrespective of the cause of his death which could be HIV/AIDS as the case is currently more often than not.
The predisposition of samburu tribe in northern Kenya to compromised health care system zeros down to poverty,lack of current health care delivery system including health care personnel,laboratory equipments, etc.
The government has tried to establish health care facilities(dispensaries) near this communities habitations but this has not been effective since the samburu people don't live permanently in specific region/location, apart from times when children,elderly and women are left behind.Also lack of trained nurses ,doctors and health care personnel within or from their own community makes them more vulnerable to inefficient and ineffective health care delivery systems,this is important because health care personnel from other kenyan regions employed by the government in this health care facilities more often than not are not able to withstand harsh climatic conditions in this region,for that reason training and employing people from this region becomes a possible efficient and possibly most effective strategy in combating the permanent consistent staff shortage in all fields.
EDUCATION.
Illiteracy among the samburu is still high, more than 70% of children are still at home helping their parents take care of their livestocks because its impossible for parents to take care of all kinds of animals, and this being samburu main source of income(totally depend on livestocks ) they would rather keep the kids at home and nurture the source of their income,otherwise everything else would be living in oblivion.
Major contributing cause of illiteracy again branches from poverty -lack of resources for example :teaching materials, classrooms, books and insecurity around schools arousing from cattle rustling.
PROBLEM STATEMENT.(to be completed)
STRATEGY/PROGRAMS.(to be completed)
HOW YOU CAN HELP.(to be completed)
Contact SPD Director:mailto:-lmeiitisia@yahoo.com.LLLLLL
