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24 Hr. Commercial Truck Service 928 Winston Churchill Blvd. Oakville From October 1st to December 15th, 2010 On Passenger or Light Truck tires only $70 AND RECEIVE Buy 4 safe MICHELIN tires A better way forward MAIL-IN REBATE w w w . o a kv ill eb ea ve r.c o m O A KV IL LE B EA V ER Th ur sd ay , O ct ob er 2 8, 2 01 0 8 By David Lea OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF The Maasai, the Samburu and groups like them have called the plains of Kenya and Tanzania home for hundreds of years and now an Oakville woman is working to make sure their communities stay intact for hun- dreds more. Lyn Bishop, a graduate of T.A. Blakelock High School and Sheridan College, is a key member of the charity organization Sauti Moja, which means one voice in Swahili. Sauti Moja, which was created by Bishops husband Tim Wright, is focused on improving the lives of the pastoral people of East Africa who are currently struggling to survive the destructive effect discrimination, disease, land loss and drought are having on them. They are on the front lines of global warming. Their lives are changing so fast and no one is there to support them, said Bishop. They are indigenous groups and like any indigenous group you see around the world, they are often left without public sympathy or support within their own community and at the same time they are a people who have a proud heritage, a way of life that should be respected and an amazing innocence to the changes that are happening around them. One of the things Sauti Moja brings to the pastoralist communities is HIV/AIDS education. An AIDS outbreak can have a disastrous impact on a pastoral community because the communitys survival depends on its members being healthy and being able to walk long distances to gather food and water and to look after livestock. Sauti Moja educates these communities about the disease and how it is spread. Young men, who travel into cities for work, in particular, receive AIDS education as they have been identified as a key trans- mission factor in Maasai communities. Condom use is also promoted and aid is given to those who already have the disease. What were trying to do is help them understand, through community conversa- tion, how HIV/AIDS is spread and how it works, so they can decide for themselves how they can change some of these cultural practices (that promote the spread of the dis- ease), said Bishop. Rather than being told what to do, they make the decisions. Early childhood education is another service Sauti Moja delivers. Bishop said in northern Tanzania Maasai children are at a huge disadvantage as the Maasai do not put their children into Grade 1 until age seven. With no prior classroom experience and no knowledge of Swahili or English, the lan- guages spoken at the schools, Maasai chil- dren are set up to fail. As a result many drop out or do not pass the exam needed to move on to secondary school. To combat this, Bishop said Sauti Moja has established two classrooms in two Tanzanian villages for Maasai children between the ages of three and seven. These classrooms help the Maasai chil- dren with their language skills and prepare them for entering the Tanzanian school sys- tem. Sauti Moja intends to bring this program to other villages as soon as funding permits it. Another Sauti Moja project sees goats, donkeys and camels provided to widows and abandoned women within some of the indigenous communities of northern Kenya. Providing this livestock allows these women to become self-sufficient and to feed their children. The goats give milk and they help to nourish the children the widow is looking after. The donkey is very important in carry- ing water and this is important because dur- ing drought season these women are walk- ing miles and miles just to get water, said Bishop. Oakville woman helping East African villagers SUBMITTED PHOTO HELPING OUT: Lyn Bishop of Oakville with a donkey that she provided to a widow in Marsabit, Kenya. Providing livestock, such as a donkey, allows these women to become self-suffi- cient and to feed their children. They are on the front lines of global warming. Their lives are changing so fast and no one is there to support them. Lyn Bishop, Sauti Moja See Helping page 9