Group seeks empowerment of Tanzanian tribe
The mission statement of Africa's Promise Village is simple: "See bad, do good." Following this, Donna Gunn and her team of volunteers serve the poverty-stricken villagers of the Maasai in Tanzania, Africa. The group acts as a resource for providing critically needed clean water wells, green energy and educational resources.
Gunn, called Momma Donna by the local parish priest in Simanjiro and a kingmaker by the archbishop of Tanzania, spearheads the nonprofit organization APV as the voice for the Maasai in the Central Texas area. Along with a school superintendent, a playwright, a college professor and a host of teachers, the organization seeks to benefit the less fortunate by providing education to stimulate self-sufficiency.
"We sat around a table and said to ourselves, 'What's the next step?' We're too old to work in the school system," Gunn said. "We were all teachers and all have a heart for children, so we said that we want to build a school for people without resources."
On a trip to Arusha, Tanzania, in summer 2010, Gunn was introduced to the Rev. Peter Pinto, the parish priest in Simanjiro who provides 19 Maasai villages with medical care, food and spiritual sustenance. The Maasai, who are known for their distinctive customs and red-robed dress, lived as a seminomadic people before the Tanzanian government relocated their villages into the Simanjiro.
