MOVED BY THE MAASAI

A trip to Tanzania becomes a life-changing experience

Text by BEVERLY MEDLYN

Photos courtesy MAASAI GIRLS RESCUE CENTER

When Rick Morro retired nine years ago, he envisioned a life of travel, golf and fishing. During his career as a business manager for multinational companies, Morro had traveled to most of the world’s industrialized countries. He was looking forward to exploring at a more leisurely pace, with time for recreation and friends.

That lasted about six months.

A former hostel serves as the Center’s main building. Fundraising is underway to build a larger facility to accommodate 100 girls on land that has been donated by the Tanzanian government

Thirteen-year-old Momoi came from a very poor family, as evidenced by this structure where she slept. Because she helped her mother with the daily chores, she had never attended school. Momoi had been cut (FGM) and promised in marriage with the down payment already made. When her father heard the government was looking for families who were not sending their girls to school, he asked Rick Morro to take her to Maasai Girls Rescue Center. She has been there a year and a half, has worked her way through four grades and is at the top of her class in Longido Primary School

"I started to feel empty,” Morro says. “I knew there had to be a more significant way I could spend my remaining days.”

Initially frustrated in his efforts to find meaningful volunteer opportunities, Morro’s participation in a Christian men’s group led him to a Scottsdale Bible Church outreach program that was based in Tanzania. Through the men’s group, Morro met Scottsdale attorney Daniel Martineau. As divorced fathers of grown children, they were both at a “what’s next” juncture and looking for ways to make a difference.

A CHANGE OF SCENE Morro dove in.

“I have to admit I was not too excited about Tanzania at first as I pictured it as a beautiful place

Rick Morro visits the family home of Naioponoi, who holds her cousin. Naioponoi lives at Maasai Girls Rescue Center

to visit because of the wildlife but was not aware of the poverty and living conditions of the people,” he says. “Once I arrived and met the Maasai people I was hooked.”

Morro moved from the Valley to Tanzania in 2013. He supported the church’s work through sustainable projects such as building a three-acre drip irrigation garden for a school. He observed and learned about the culture for more than two years before he determined his personal mission and founded the Maasai Girls Rescue Center in Longido, Tanzania.

“I saw the girls are at the bottom of the food chain in the Maasai culture,” Morro says. “I believe if you educate girls, they will educate their families and develop the skills and knowledge that will help them climb out of poverty.”

Maasai girls—some younger than 10—are forced into early marriages to much older men with multiple wives. Most girls are subjected to female genital mutilation, performed sometime between infancy and age 15. The rite of passage causes lifelong pain and health issues. Though governments and health organizations are working to stop FGM, it is estimated there are 200 million women and girls alive worldwide who have undergone the procedure, according to the World Health Organization.

Morro knew the girls would need a safe place to live and nutritious meals. He made an arrangement with a local nonprofit organization in 2017 to renovate a 20-room hostel that could house 40 girls on the 20-acre property. That year the Center accepted its first four girls.

Currently there are nearly 50 girls, most between ages 5 and 10 but ranging up to age 15. Local women, matrons, care for and teach the girls. Morro, 70, oversees the operation, which he pays for himself with help from donors and sponsors for individual girls. Fundraising is underway to build a larger facility to accommodate 100 girls on land that has been donated by the Tanzanian government.

Each afternoon a teacher helps the girls with their schoolwork in the Center’s tutoring room. Because most of the girls have never previously attended school, the tutoring helps them catch up to their classmates

MARTINEAU CLIMBS KILIMANJARO—AND MORE Tanzania also is known as one of the world’s most spectacular travel destinations. Its wilderness areas include safari mecca Serengeti National Park and Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain. Martineau, 60, had a lifelong dream to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. He had visited East Africa in 2008 with his family and wanted to return. His friend Laura Medved agreed to go with him on the perilous mountain expedition if they could go on safari afterward. The couple capped off those two peak experiences in August 2018 with a visit to the Maasai Girls Rescue Center.

“That visit had a huge impact on me,” Martineau says. “My heart was so touched by the helplessness of these girls and the true miracles that Rick has brought to their lives.” He decided to sponsor two girls at the center with monthly stipends of $130 each.

With his background in law and as administrator of his own charitable foundation, Martineau set up a nonprofit organization and board for the Center, along with Jay Budzien. Both men serve on the board.

Next came Joyce and Bruce Hammond, owners of GrowthPoint, a marketing company in Michigan. They also knew Morro and were familiar with his charitable work. The Hammonds and their staff have volunteered to help direct the

Center’s marketing and social media efforts, business systems and data base operations.

“Joyce and I visited the Center last fall, which further energized us to donate time and resources,” says Hammond. “Once you get involved to understand the need, it’s hard not to help.”

EXPANDING THE NETWORK Morro and his supporters want others to have opportunities to expand their world through intentional travel and philanthropy.

Martineau is working with local public radio stations KJZZ and KBAQ, which sponsor a Travel Club. “Our listeners care about the world and want to make a difference,” says Linda Pastori, general manager, development.

Research and a scouting trip will take place this year, and if everything falls into place, a journey to Tanzania may be offered in 2021, Pastori says.

Morro welcomes visitors at the Center any time. Guests give the girls exposure to people from other cultures. Visitors get the chance to change lives, including their own, he says.

“I ask myself often: ‘Why do this?’” Morro says. “The answer is simple: I found what I was looking for. I am more fulfilled than I have ever been in my life. We are planting the seeds for future generations of these girls.” ❖ For more information, visit masaairescue.org.

Rick Morro’s granddaughter served as a volunteer at the Center last summer

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