About MERC
Over Three Decades Of Changemaking
For Olosho Le Maa
Where Do We Begin?
Our story begins in Kenya in 1987, when activist scholar Meitamei Olol Dapash began organizing to bolster efforts of the Maasai community to protect wildlife and promote Maasai land rights and cultural survival.
In 1987, Meitamei Olol Dapash wanted to reach international networks and partnerships for more than 150 Maasai community leaders who had organized to challenge the illegal occupation of Maasailand and discrimination of Maasai people under Kenyan law. In the early 1990s, Meitamei relocated in the United States, eventually establishing an office in Washington D.C., and MERC was established as a U.S. in 1994 as a 501(c)3 at that time, to provide resources and other support to sister organization to further the resourcing and other support to the work in East Africa. In 2014, MERC retained its acronym but changed its name from the Maasai Environmental Resource Coalition to the Institute for Maasai Education, Research, and Conservation, to reflect more than a decade of growing emphasis on accessing information and generating knowledge for the empowerment of the Maasai community. The Dopoi Center for Education and Community Organizing was established with long-time partner, Prescott College in Arizona, as a means to revitalize tourism and support the decolonization of research in Maasailand.
Our Mission
MERC promotes the empowerment of the indigenous Maasai community of East Africa through education, tourism reform, environmental conservation, and land rights, while it engages with broader international efforts for indigenous cultural survival, education, species survival, and environmental conservation.
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