People

Matthew Norton (Executive Director)

For Matthew, the passion of supporting education in the world was established in 2007. Whilst on safari in Kenya and Tanzania, he witnessed at first hand the need for education in the country and the desire of children to attend school. The sight of a child receiving a pencil and bowing his head in gratitude changed his life forever. Never has the expression of thanks been greater and for something which we in the western world take so much for granted.

 

Upon returning from holiday, Matthew was introduced to Serena Tome, CEO of the Maasai Heritage Preservation Foundation. Matthews vision was to try and help schools by way of more than simply donating money, but providing equipment and educational materials directly to the school. With the help of Serena his vision was realised and the relationship with Memusi school developed.

 

What originally started as small project has now flourished to unimaginable levels. Matthew was appointed UK Director of the MHPF and has established the charity firmly in the UK.

 

"I feel passionately that everyone in the world has the right to an education. There are some reported 146 million children in the world that currently do not receive an education. I am dedicated to helping provide sustainable and quality education to the people of the world who do not have a voice. I feel that I am being guided to do this and to use the words of Mother Theresa "What we are doing may be just a drop in the ocean, but without that drop the ocean would be less." I believe that if we can even help a small minority with our work that we can improve peoples lives"

Serena Tome (CEO)

In November of 2000, The Maasai Heritage Preservation Foundation began with hope of helping the Maasai people advance on the modern world of the 21st century. Since the begininng of the organization the vision has changed to include indigenous groups worldwide. Serena has worked hard to create a vehicle that will offer hope and transformation for the generations ahead. It was Serena who founded MHPF in 2000 with her husband, John Ole Tome with the aim to provide education and health care to the Maasai people of Kenya and Tanzania while maintaining the traditions and culture, thus empowering the Maasai to communicate and be competitive in the modern world.

 

Through the establishment of the Foundation she has helped the Maasai people develop on a number of fronts. It was her vision to establish the scholarship programme that she built the Foundation upon, as well as developing the 'Goodwin Centre'.

 

 

Kilines Sekiwha (Director for Tanzania)

Kili is the perfect illustration of what education can do for a person in Africa. Coming from Mlali in Tanzania, Kili was fortunate enough to go through the education system in Tanzania. She progressed through school, college and is now at University in Edinburgh. Kili is currently undertaking a Phd in Education and will return to Tanzania on completion of the course. To ensure that she is giving back to the Tanzanian education system, she has committed her future to teaching in the country.

 

With the realisation of the need for education, Kili founded 'The Elizabeth Academy, Mlali' (also known as TEAM). It was the dream of Kili to provide an education to orphans and the children from single parent families. Creating the school with the support of friends and family, Kili firmly established the school for 30 children and funded the day to day running of the school herself. In 2008, after being introduced by a friend, Kili met Matthew. The MHPF agreed to support Kili realise her ambitions in her homeland and in recognition of her drive and determination, Kili was invited to join the board of MHPF as Tanzanian Director. Kili will be helping to set the vision for the MHPF work in her country.

 

Simantoi Mbarye (Founder of Memusi School)

Similarly to Kili,Simantoi managed to get through the education system successfully and is now giving something back. Simantoi has a dream to provide education for the people of Memusi. In approaching the Foundation for support, Simantoi sucessfully established Memusi School. In 2006 the school started with 4 pupils and due to Simantoi's dedication, the school as flourished, grown to 40 childrenand has now won awards. It is due to her dedication and drive that the school has grown and flourished.

 

The next steps for Simantoi are to guide Memusi school in its re-development. Simantoi maintains that her goal is to provide an education institute for 450 children in the region and has dedicated her life to reach that goal.

"My calling is to educate the Maasai into formal education and to learn more on the benefits of the cuture and maintain it. I feel I should be running an institution which will accomodate both formal and informal education. I started Memusi school to give a good foundation for early childhood education. I compare myself with others who went to school much later than me at an era which I thought education has been accepted, but I could still see a big loop-hole in the way they talk even before a crowd, their grammar even their written languages was a big problem. I wanted to know the root cause and i found out that its the early childhood education that was not right. I was lucky because my parents were christians and were working in a cosmopolitan township where we got a good start in education. My passion is to help the people of Kenya get the chance that i was given."