NASA NURSERY SCHOOL AND THE VILLAGE OF MAKAO MAPYA

In 2019, we were introduced to the Maasai people living in the remote village of Makao Mapya in Tanzania.  At that time, the village only had the use of a one room mud hut without a formal teacher or clean water.   It certainly wasn’t an environment that lent itself to learning.   Our partner in Tanzania, Kundael Molla, had arranged for two safari clients to provide the initial funds to start the NASA Nursery School.   He asked Scott’s Legacy to complete the construction and help the people.   Since then, we have provided funds for teachers, food, doors, windows and desks. We provided toilets through our fundraiser “Can You Give A Crap” where donors “sponsored” toilets, urinals and supplies. We donated a Connor’s Toy Box.

We traveled to the school in May 2023 and saw the need firsthand for clean water. We met with the village elders who showed us the brown water that children were drinking out of swamps and roadside ditches. The community shares what limited water resources they have with animals. This results in illness and death - which would be fully preventable if they had clean water. When we returned, we successfully raised the $30,000 funds necessary to tap into the government’s water supply to bring clean water to the village. The project got underway at the end of 2023 and the village should have clean water in early 2024.

During our visit in May 2023, we delivered 40 pair of “Shoes That Grow” and school supplies donated by St. Paul’s Lutheran School in Kingsville, MD.  We provided clothing including pillowcase dresses, shorts and shirts. We refilled Connor’s Toy Box and provided funds for food.

NASA Nursery School has become the center of the community and a pride for the people that helped build it and take “ownership” in it.

As soon as the clean water project is complete, we will construct our 4th Sara’s Kitchen, our 2nd Wyatt’s Garden and complete the 2nd Hayden’s Playground. We will also completely fence in the school, garden, kitchen, playground and the water system to protect it from the wild animals as it is located near the safari areas. Scott’s cousin Jamie, her husband Brian and children Brooke and Gavin are funding the food program for NASA Nursery School. Each month, maize and beans will be delivered to Sara’s Kitchen at NASA to make sure that each child has a good meal every day. We can’t wait for them to travel to Africa with us to meet the children they are helping.