Elatiasidai

Elatiasidai is the elected steering committee of the Maasai Women Network in Longido District, northern Tanzania. The network grew out of Project Haki: The Women’s Network (2021 to 2024), a CISU-supported project that Jengo ran in Longido with its local partner LOOCIP. The network brings together women from five areas, estimated at around 2,000 members, and has elected a steering committee of 20 women. In December 2023 the committee registered the network’s savings and loan group as a community microfinance group with Longido District Council under the Microfinance Act 2018 (reg. ARU/LON/2023/0010, 29.12.2023). Elatiasidai runs a bank owned and managed by the women themselves. Members save together and can borrow for school fees, medicine or a small business at 3 to 4 percent interest. Loans are decided together by the committee, and large requests start small to protect the members’ savings. The purpose is to strengthen Maasai women’s economic independence and leadership in Longido, in a pastoral community where land and livestock have traditionally belonged to men.