Ledama Olekina, a twenty-five year old Maasai from Kenya, is using his feet to raise money for a school he's hoping to build in Kenya. The Maasai Educational Discovery Foundation (MEDF) has been established to help the Maasai people improve their education standards in order for them to adapt to fast changing lifestyles, while maintaining their culture. Ledama also hopes that the school will be used to teach both Kenyan and American students. He hopes to incorporate university volunteers from the US as well as Maasai elders as teachers in this institution.
Ledama walked from Colorado to Arizona in May 1999 and will be walking from Boston to Chicago from May until July 2000. He hopes his walk will raise money for the MEDF, bring awareness of his culture to America, and encourage people to look at a bicultural approach to education. "When I was growing up I had a foot in two worlds but my foot in my Maasai world was heavier," he concludes.
Article copyright Cultural Survival, Inc.
