About the Maasai Automotive Education Centre
PROJECT OVERVIEW
The Maasai Automotive Education Centre (MAEC) will be the first Maasai owned and run automotive workshop, makerspace, and education facility in Maasailand, Kenya. This project was designed in collaboration with members of the Mara Guide Association (MGA), the Maasai Education, Research and Conservation Institute (MERC), Prescott College (PC), and GlobalResolve at Arizona State University (ASU). With this facility, we intend to reduce the percentage of MGA guide income that goes directly toward sustaining vehicles by teaching vehicle repair, maintenance techniques, and procedures to MGA guides and other Maasai community members. This facility will provide a location that contains the necessary resources to teach an automotive curriculum with a fully loaded garage to work on multiple MGA tour guide vehicles.
The MAEC will serve as a trusted automotive repair and education facility to the current 205 MGA guides and the thousands of Maasai community members spread throughout the Maasai Mara dispersal areas of Wuaso Nyiro, Loita, Aiton, Mara Rianta, Olderkesi, Siana, Sekenani, and Talek. The income from each game-drive guide can impact as many as 100 community members. Currently, a Mara Guide’s only resource for maintaining his/her vehicle is horribly overpriced and typically more than 50% of a Mara Guide’s income goes toward maintaining their vehicle in local “chop shops.” The resources of the MAEC will significantly reduce repair costs and empower the local Maasai people, creating jobs by providing them with the knowledge and the facility to be able to locally repair their own vehicles.
The Maasai Automotive Education Centre (MAEC) will be the first Maasai owned and run automotive workshop, makerspace, and education facility in Maasailand, Kenya. This project was designed in collaboration with members of the Mara Guide Association (MGA), the Maasai Education, Research and Conservation Institute (MERC), Prescott College (PC), and GlobalResolve at Arizona State University (ASU). With this facility, we intend to reduce the percentage of MGA guide income that goes directly toward sustaining vehicles by teaching vehicle repair, maintenance techniques, and procedures to MGA guides and other Maasai community members. This facility will provide a location that contains the necessary resources to teach an automotive curriculum with a fully loaded garage to work on multiple MGA tour guide vehicles.
The MAEC will serve as a trusted automotive repair and education facility to the current 205 MGA guides and the thousands of Maasai community members spread throughout the Maasai Mara dispersal areas of Wuaso Nyiro, Loita, Aiton, Mara Rianta, Olderkesi, Siana, Sekenani, and Talek. The income from each game-drive guide can impact as many as 100 community members. Currently, a Mara Guide’s only resource for maintaining his/her vehicle is horribly overpriced and typically more than 50% of a Mara Guide’s income goes toward maintaining their vehicle in local “chop shops.” The resources of the MAEC will significantly reduce repair costs and empower the local Maasai people, creating jobs by providing them with the knowledge and the facility to be able to locally repair their own vehicles.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Maasailand is one of the major worldwide destinations for wildlife game drives in Africa. However, the Maasai community has only recently been directly involved with this tourist industry to help grow their community by keeping the money made within Maasailand, in Maasailand. This is accomplished due to the efforts of the MGA, which over the years has grown to 205 independent Maasai guides with a fleet of 115 Toyota Land Cruisers. These vehicles are in constant need of repair due to the extreme road conditions they face every day. Currently, the only local auto repair shops in Maasailand are run by uncertified non-Maasai mechanics who overcharge for poor repairs and are known to rig vehicles to break. These mechanics migrate around Maasailand, charging up to four times the normal cost for repairs and spare parts based on what is charged in central cities such as Nairobi (the capital of Kenya). The director of MERC, Meitamei Ole Dapash, states that the most common phrase associated with mechanics is: “These Maasai are stupid; they do not know anything and they have the money, so, we shall milk them dry. We came here to make money, not to play around.” With the development of the MAEC, the money that would normally be spent on vehicle repair could instead be put toward helping the direct community afford much-needed amenities such as food, education, housing, and medical care.
SIGNIFICANCE
Once fully implemented, the MAEC will supply a location at the Prescott College’s Field Station in Maasailand, Kenya (MERC Dopoi Center shown as purple pin in Figure 2) for local Maasai to take courses on various vehicle topics including but not limited to safety, driving techniques, various repair and maintenance procedures, painting, electrical work, and proper tool use. At the end of each of these courses, the Maasai students will receive a certificate showing that they have completed a MAEC course, giving them the opportunity to find employment at one of the various five-star lodges in Maasailand or start their own business. Providing education to the Maasai community that can help them find reliable jobs that will bring money back into Maasailand, giving them the opportunity to not only support their families but also purchase back land they once owned. Initial automotive courses for the MGA guides will be designed around their Toyota Land Cruisers. These courses, developed from the current automotive engineering curriculum at ASU together with new material focused directly on the Toyota Land Cruiser manuals, will provide guides with enough knowledge to be mindful about repair and maintenance costs for their vehicles, allowing them to avoid being overcharged and ultimately reducing the percentage of their income that goes toward vehicle repair.
Maasailand is one of the major worldwide destinations for wildlife game drives in Africa. However, the Maasai community has only recently been directly involved with this tourist industry to help grow their community by keeping the money made within Maasailand, in Maasailand. This is accomplished due to the efforts of the MGA, which over the years has grown to 205 independent Maasai guides with a fleet of 115 Toyota Land Cruisers. These vehicles are in constant need of repair due to the extreme road conditions they face every day. Currently, the only local auto repair shops in Maasailand are run by uncertified non-Maasai mechanics who overcharge for poor repairs and are known to rig vehicles to break. These mechanics migrate around Maasailand, charging up to four times the normal cost for repairs and spare parts based on what is charged in central cities such as Nairobi (the capital of Kenya). The director of MERC, Meitamei Ole Dapash, states that the most common phrase associated with mechanics is: “These Maasai are stupid; they do not know anything and they have the money, so, we shall milk them dry. We came here to make money, not to play around.” With the development of the MAEC, the money that would normally be spent on vehicle repair could instead be put toward helping the direct community afford much-needed amenities such as food, education, housing, and medical care.
SIGNIFICANCE
Once fully implemented, the MAEC will supply a location at the Prescott College’s Field Station in Maasailand, Kenya (MERC Dopoi Center shown as purple pin in Figure 2) for local Maasai to take courses on various vehicle topics including but not limited to safety, driving techniques, various repair and maintenance procedures, painting, electrical work, and proper tool use. At the end of each of these courses, the Maasai students will receive a certificate showing that they have completed a MAEC course, giving them the opportunity to find employment at one of the various five-star lodges in Maasailand or start their own business. Providing education to the Maasai community that can help them find reliable jobs that will bring money back into Maasailand, giving them the opportunity to not only support their families but also purchase back land they once owned. Initial automotive courses for the MGA guides will be designed around their Toyota Land Cruisers. These courses, developed from the current automotive engineering curriculum at ASU together with new material focused directly on the Toyota Land Cruiser manuals, will provide guides with enough knowledge to be mindful about repair and maintenance costs for their vehicles, allowing them to avoid being overcharged and ultimately reducing the percentage of their income that goes toward vehicle repair.
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
Our goal is to create three main facilities within the MAEC:
Our goal is to create three main facilities within the MAEC:
- A four-bay automotive shop facility with all of the necessary tools and resources to perform various repair and maintenance procedures on the late 1990s and early 2000s Toyota Land Cruisers. This shop will be the first Maasai run automotive repair shop in Maasailand and will be a dependable vehicle repair location for the MGA.
- A shop-style classroom facility suitable to accommodate up to 30 students. This classroom will contain large work tables where the automotive and technical-based curriculum will be taught.
- A makerspace facility that contains workbenches and an assortment of prototyping tools, allowing for ASU and Prescott College students to make more progress on the projects that they do over the months that they visit Kenya.