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Photos by Kirk Hirota
Whitworth's East Africa Initiative has taken a few big steps forward as a result of recent meetings between Assistant Professor of Theology Moses Pulei, '97, and several high-ranking government officials from Kenya and Tanzania.
In fall 2007, Whitworth launched its East Africa Initiative, which aims to connect students, faculty, and people in the Spokane region with members of the Maasai tribe and others in Africa, and help students become global Christians. The initiative is headed by Pulei, who was raised in the Maasai culture in Kenya and Tanzania and has been involved in community development projects, microenterprise, and peacemaking efforts there.
Government officials in Kenya and Tanzania called a March 2009 gathering to discuss food production plans and other community development projects. Pulei was invited to attend the meetings, held in Arusha, Tanzania, while the East African Parliament was in session, because of his connections in East Africa and his involvement with the Presbytery of Los Ranchos' East Africa Partnership Committee of Los Ranchos, which is building health clinics and promoting food production efforts in the region.
"In a big way, I feel like this trip made inroads with the people there, and that they will know more about Whitworth as a result," Pulei says. "My goal from now on is to connect the relationships that I have in Africa with people at Whitworth, so that they're not just Moses relationships, but Whitworth relationships."
During his six-day stay in Tanzania, Pulei met with the vice president, prime minister, and finance minister of Kenya and several Tanzanian officials at the provincial and district levels.
Pulei's three main goals during the meetings were to convince government officials to commit to pursuing selfd-evelopment projects, to encourage leaders to present a unified front on issues, and to inform leaders about Whitworth's East Africa Initiative.
"The highlight was meeting with the regular members of parliament, because those are the people who are in touch with the problems that people in their villages are facing," Pulei says. "For the first time, I felt like the African leaders are doing (development projects) because they feel like it's a calling."
The East Africa Partnership Committee of Los Ranchos is planning to help cultivate 10,000 acres of corn in Tanzania and Kenya; the leaders in those countries are excited about the possibilities of those and other projects, Pulei says. At least two million people in Kenya are in danger of starvation, and draught and famine are concerns in Tanzania as well. Helping East Africans to produce their own food is a critical need. As the situation becomes more desperate, violence increases, which is why peacemaking concerns were also addressed during the meetings, according to Pulei.
Other topics Pulei discussed with the African officials include the importance of environmental care in community development and the significance of empowering and educating women.
"For the first time, people are excited about empowering women," Pulei says. "I talked to Maasai men who sold their livestock to send their daughters to school; that wouldn't have happened five years ago."
The East Africa Partnership Committee, which includes Colette Cozean, Ph.D., who attended the meetings with Pulei and whose daughter, Chelsea, is a junior at Whitworth, is working with Whitworth to raise money so students can do internships in East Africa.
Last January, Pulei took a group of 22 students on Whitworth's first study program to Tanzania, where they worked in orphanages and schools and did home stays. Pulei says he hopes to start a summer study program in which students would spend most of their time doing internships in their field of study, such as business or nursing.
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