About Us
More than a tourist experience
Oldarpoi Mara Camp is affiliated with I See Maasai Development Initiative (ISMDI). ISMDI invests the profits from Oldarpoi’s sustainable tourism camp into development projects in the local community. Together, these organizations have partnered in their work to empower the Maasai communities economically, advocate for education and lead a campaign to eradicate such damaging traditional practices as female genital mutilation (FGM).
Oldarpoi and ISMDI are committed to pursuing holistic development projects, where jobs are created and local income generated; healthcare and education programs are initiated; the environment is preserved; harmful traditional practices are discouraged; and clean water is made available to all.
Where the Community runs its own show
The historic initiative started off after local elders selected the name “Nashulai”to denote the holistic, traditional place where people and wildlife share the land
harmoniously.
Before starting the conservancy, the community saw the need to work out a system that could restore its degraded land; preserve its age-old culture; sustain its traditional livestock-based economy and enable the people, livestock and wildlife to co-exist in relative harmony as they had done for centuries.
Local Community Involvement
The local Maasai communities surrounding the Mara ecosystem are faced with a myriad of problems scarce medical facilities, severe droughts, high unemployment, high illiteracy, lack of access to clean water, destruction of the natural environment, and harmful traditional practices like female genital mutilation and early marriages of girls.