Meet the Board
Meet the Board
MARA CONSERVATION
encouraging empathy for other life
MLP Team in Morocco
Advisors in Morocco
What We Do & Where
Our mission is to uplift lives and build a positive future by empowering the next generation with literacy and knowledge; creating meaningful livelihoods for women; and nurturing civic and environmental stewardship. We see these goals as inter-related and equally necessary for a just and sustainable future for all.
We focus on the rural Maasai Mara of Kenya and rural Amazigh communities of Morocco. In Kenya, we address these goals holistically. We boost disadvantaged schools with learning resources, provide scholarships for talented at-risk students, bring literacy to the youngest at the village level, develop clean water, and run a Women's Work Center that builds skills and entrepreneurship among women for the 1st time in their lives. In Morocco, our legacy program of English libraries at the rural schools most in need has evolved to the 1st nationwide writing competitions for youth writing in English. Our approach is collaborative, through deep relationships in these communities.
Why Kenya & Morocco?
Maasai Mara, Kenya
The Maasai Mara is an extraordinary place, where this indigenous community has co-existed with wildlife for millennia. In the words of one of our colleagues, "The wildlife is here because of the people." Their way of life also preserves the native grasslands, a vital carbon sink and buffer against climate change. The Maasai are guardians of these treasures. And yet, life is hard for the people who live here, with profound disadvantages in education, health, and the most basic livelihoods. Over 75% of people here live on less than $1 a day (KNBS). Our aim is to uplift communities in the Mara while honoring and maintaining what they love about their culture, heritage, and way of life in harmony with the natural surroundings.
In education, the Mara is one of the most disadvantaged regions of East Africa. Only 11% of young people enroll in secondary school, and the area has one of the highest dropout rates and teen pregnancy rates in Kenya. Many families can't afford to send their children to school, and when this happens girls are usually the first to drop out. The girls may then be forced into early marriage, and many go through FGM if they leave school. Keeping kids in school is a top priority.
We transform the poorest rural schools in the Mara by setting up quality resources including libraries and science labs and providing literacy opportunities. We also help girls stay in school through scholarships and by distributing sanitary kits. Rather than creating new schools, we've found that equipping the most needy schools with meaningful, relevant resources changes the learning trajectory for the greatest number of youth, and it is sustainable.
Most women here lack literacy and marketable skills, as they did not have the chance to go to school when they were young. And yet, they hold their families together through the hard work of domestic life. We built and run a co-operative Women's Work Center as a platform for meaningful income-generating work for women through sewing, traditional beading, and vocational and business training. When women make an income, they use it to lift up their families — a truth no matter where you are in this world. We witness joy and confidence blossom in women as they earn an income for the 1st time in their lives. We also improve family health through access to clean water.
Environmental stewardship is a core value of ours, and we incorporate it into everything we do. Our libraries include conservation learning, and we support tree planting and use solar in all our development projects. In turn, we believe the Maasai community has much to teach the rest of the world on living in balance with nature and with other life on earth.
Rural Morocco
We founded Morocco Library Project (MLP) in 2014, and that was the beginning of Oliveseed. This is the first English library program in Morocco. From the start, the principles have been to ignite literacy and love of learning in rural under-resourced Amazigh communities in collaboration with highly motivated teachers and youth (and several times with the Peace Corps). When we started, the schools, particularly in the deserts of the south, had very little in the way of learning resources. The MLP libraries are mostly class libraries in English, which is what the communities asked for, and they continue to help teachers with extra-curricular activities for students anxious to master another language and widen their global perspective. Our continuing goal is for young Moroccans to have the literacy, confidence, and opportunities to become positive global citizens in our changing world.
Morocco sits at the cross-roads between East and West, and as such it embodies potential for great influence in the world. Through MLP, we are building a lasting bridge of friendship and peace between the U.S. and North Africa. That has always been part of our mission here.
Today, after 12 years of helping teachers nurture a culture of reading and expanding youth access to a global conversation, MLP has evolved to the 1st nationwide Short Story Competition for youth, with published books, as well as indigenous story projects for youth and their elders.
