Film on Aid to Kenya's Maasai Students Debuts Oct. 30, Cambridge

The following article is from AjabuAfrica.com, 27 October 2009.

 

“Maasai at the Crossroads” Airs Oct. 30 in Cambridge

Kenyan Nonprofit Founded by American Tourist, Inspired by Maasai Teacher Conducting Class Under Tree

BOSTON, Mass, OCTOBER 27, 2009 -- Dumbfounded by the sight of an African teacher scribbling on dirt as he taught children under an acacia tree near Mt. Kilimanjaro, Teri Gabriselen is now ready to rumble with this sorry sight she witnessed about 10 years ago in otherwise-beautiful Kenya.

Inspired to directly help children in Kenya, Gabriselen founded Africa Schools of Kenya (ASK).  The organization aims to to "increase awareness for Kenyan children on critical global issues such as healthy living, environmental sustainability, animal [and] wildlife conservation, and cultural diversity," according to ASK's website (ASKenya.org).  

After many years of preparation, Gabriselen will hold a premiere of a 45-minute documentary about enriching the lives of Maasai children through education while respecting their customs, traditions and way of life.

The "Maasai at the Crossroads" documentary will debut at Harvard University, Science Center, Hall D, at 1 Oxford Street in Cambridge, Mass., on Friday, October 30, 2009, starting at 6:00 p.m.Gabriselen and filmmakers Joe Diesch and Kristin Jordan will attend the premiere and answer questions.  The film's narrator, Harvard professor Calestous Juma, who is from Kenya, will attend the premiere, too.After the film screening, MIT Media Lab spinoff One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) [a project that seeks to give laptop computers to children in developing countries] will give a demo of its XO laptop. 

When Gabriselen visited Kenya's Amboselli National Park 10 years ago and witnessed the unbelievable spectacle of the man teaching under a tree, she made a silent vow to herself that one day, she would return to bring whatever help she could to further quality education for the Maasai teacher, Joseph ole Kamete, and the children of the Esiteti school, with its roots under an acacia tree.

Now, Gabriselen is back, this time with a big plan!

A mother of two, her burning desire to improve education in Kenya had been brewing as she raised her son and daughter, knowing that as soon as they were of age, she would waste no time to embark on her mission.

Years progressed, and she founded Africa Schools of Kenya in 2007.

In March of 2009, she organized a speaker program through which about nine African leaders visited the school and talked to the children as role models.

Teri Gabriselen, founder and director of Africa Schools of Kenya, greets Maasai people during the filming of "Maasai at the Crossroads" in Kenya.        

The program was also extended to the Eseteti School in April. The role models met with more than 200 school children ages 3 to 12.  In some sessions, about 200 to 500 adults came to attend the talks.

The ASK School is currently located inside the wildlife corridor at Amboselli National Park, near the Kitirua area.  Plans are underway to relocate it to the Esiteti School inside the main village, in order to make it closer for the children.

A second school is already under construction and scheduled for completion in 2010. ASK is also building a health care facility to be run by either a doctor or a nurse practitioner; it is scheduled to be completed at the end of 2010.

Awareness and passion for this inspiring story has been growing especially after two renowned filmmakers shot a documentary titled “Maasai at the Crossroads” that screened one month ago at Gabriselen’s house in Santa Barbara, Calif., attended by a large crowd of curious guests.

Produced by Jos Diesch and Kristin Jordan, “Maasai at the Crossroads” shows the choices that the Maasai are making to bring positive changes to their culture, education and future.

It took Diesch and Jordan three-and-a-half weeks to shoot the documentary, during which time they interacted extensively with the Maasai.

Film producer Joe Dietsch in action during the filming of the "Maasai at the Crossroads" documentary in Kenya.        

“It was a real surprise to me at how well we interacted with the Maasai. The people were incredibly open and willing to discuss issues in their lives with people like us and on camera,” said Diesch on a telephone call with AjabuAfrica News.

One of the most surprising issues that Diesch noted was the willingness of the Maasai to shed the retrogressive practice of female circumcision.

“The older generation is seriously considering it while the younger generation seems to be ready to move away from it, as they are realizing that education is more important,” he said.

In the documentary, many women in the Maasai community said that sex was more meaningful and enjoyable before female circumcision, making many people -- including men -- want to try a change of culture.

The documentary got an added local dimension when a Kenyan teacher at Harvard University agreed to add to the efforts of Teri Gabriselen and her associates as a narrator in the unique film.

Producer Kristin Jordan checks her camera during the filming of "Maasai at the Crossroads."       

The teacher, Professor Calestous Juma, found the project intriguing since he was embarking on an almost similar project when Gabriselen approached him to do the narration.

Prof. Juma is a professor of the practice of international development as well as director of Harvard's Science, Technology, and Globalization Project. He also directs the Agricultural Innovation in Africa Project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

He has been elected to several scientific academies, including the Royal Society of London, the US National Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, and the UK Royal Academy of Engineering. He has won several international awards for his work on sustainable development. He has written widely on science, technology, and environment.

Prof. Juma spent the summer of 2009 building a school in Kenya, called the Victoria Institute of Science and Technology (VIST).

VIST School is located in Kisumu town, and aims at training young people on how to create enterprises and jobs instead of just looking for jobs that are not there in the first place. Prof. Juma hopes to attract more donations to continue developing the school to positively impact the lives of many Kenyan youth.  As a result, Prof. Juma felt that “Maasai at the Crossroads” was a very noble idea that needed everyone’s input. He therefore agreed to do the narration.

Prof. Juma, who handed a copy of the documentary to the Kenyan prime minister, Hon. Raila Odinga, during his recent visit to Harvard University, will moderate the Friday, Oct. 30, premiere.

The professor lauded the efforts by Teri, Joe and Kristin to make ASK a model project.  He asked Kenyans in the diaspora to come and listen about why Teri returned to Amboseli to help a community build a school.

”Most tourists don't return to places they have visited. If you get to know why, we can learn more about how our shared empathy can be a stronger force for the global good than sympathy,” said the professor.

He added that traditional aid programs are based on global sympathy, and their impact has been so limited and often negative.

Professor Calestous Juma of Harvard University is the narrator in the “Maasai at the Crossroads” documentary.

“Teri's approach is so different in this regard and can teach us a lot about how we can do more with less. I am sure that Kenyans in [the] diaspora will learn something from the story,” Prof. Juma told Ajabu Africa in an email.

ASK has so far managed to raise about $110,000 and hopes to collect another $500,000 soon.

Serving as the founder and director of Africa Schools of Kenya (ASK), Teri currently resides in Santa Barbara, California, with her husband and two adult children.  She received her Multi-Subject Teaching Credential in Elementary Education and taught school for several years.

Later, she specialized in account management and worked extensively in the travel industry.  She was media sales manager for both Los Angeles Magazine, owned by American Broadcast Corporation (ABC), and Cosmopolitan Magazine, owned by Hearst Corporation.

As an educator, Teri has traveled extensively throughout Kenya, which inspired her to start an educational organization directly benefiting the children of Kenya (www.askenya.org).

Extra helpTeri’s efforts have been immeasurably complemented by the skills of Joe Dietsch and Kristin Jordan, the two filmmakers behind the “Maasai at the Crossroads”. Dietsch has been making movies since he was six years old, starting with a Hi8 camera, his friends and Legos. Throughout high school, he worked with the Life Chronicles organization, filming and editing documentaries about the lives of terminally ill people.

He recently graduated from Chapman University's film department and is currently working in Los Angeles as a director/editor on music videos, commercials, and short films.  See his Web site at http://www.joedietsch.com

Kristin Jordan grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. She discovered her love of film in the late 1990s as Turner Entertainment’s first high school intern. After receiving her B.S. and B.A. from CU Boulder, Kristin moved to Los Angeles to pursue her masters in journalism at the University of Southern California.

She produced, shot and edited several documentaries for USC’s award-winning cable television news magazine, including "Joshua Tree: A Place of Solitude," about Joshua Tree Park being on the top 10 list of endangered National Parks for three consecutive years.

She also filmed an independent documentary titled "Hlabisa: An Unbroken Spirit," about the daily struggles of the inhabitants of a remote poverty-stricken village that’s the epicenter of the AIDS epidemic in South Africa.

The ASK project has also attracted the input of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) organization.  The organization is planning to send wireless computers to the Maasai children in Amboselli, giving them access to the external world.

”This is the power of the people,” said Terri on a telephone call to AjabuAfrica.com. Kenyans and their friends in the US are blessed with education and a lot of resources.

“It’s our turn to give back to the community and therefore we should come together since it is very difficult to do this work individually,” she added, inviting Kenyans from around Boston to the premiere.

She said that ASK has a mission to develop a cross-cultural exchange using the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) program that will enable pupils in Kenya and those in America  to connect live through technologies like video and tele-conferencing, to share research findings on any given topic that they might get assigned to.

“We will develop a cross-cultural curriculum from which students can learn different things from different locations and share it together,” Teri revealed to Ajabu Africa on the phone.

“Many big organizations like Cisco and Habitat for Humanity are very much interested,” added the determined mother of two.

Teri said that it was encouraging to see that the Maasai are ready to make changes to their way of life after realizing that they can no longer depend on animals for survival, as it is not sustainable, especially when droughts such as the current one strikes and ravages many parts of Kenya.

She added that the project is approaching big donors, especially the technology companies, for more help because she plans to bring ASK efforts to other parts of Kenya.

ASK is planning on a trip to their projects in Kenya and is inviting anyone willing to join them to come.

As for “Maasai at the Crossroads,” Teri promised it would be a very exciting 45 minutes for anyone who makes it to the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Mass., at 6 p.m. on Oct. 30.

Ajabu Africa reccomends allowing ample time to get to Harvard because of the Cambridge-area traffic that can be a problem during rush hour.  A subway ride on the red line to Harvard Square also will take time, although it avoids parking hassles.For more info about the event, follow it here on facebook.

Source:  AjabuAfrica.com

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