Get to Know: Love Tribe Project
Love Tribe Project, a nonprofit dedicated to building wells and schools for the Massai villages of Kenya, recently held its second annual Love Tribe Lounge Gala in Laguna Beach. Thanks to event sponsors Max Mara and Joshua Landis with Christie’s of Aspen, the event was a sold-out success.
Founders Carmela Phillips and Julia Post Guenther were touched by all the support they received and thanked sponsors and patrons for their generosity.
Upon learning that women were walking over 18 miles to collect water each day and that children could not attend school because of dangerous conditions, friends and supporters rallied to the cause raising almost $300,000 that evening! In addition, beautiful Maasai jewelry was on sale, and a silent and live auction with many enticing packages got the crowd bidding for this wonderful cause.
How It Began
Carmela and Julia met their first Maasai in January 2020 on a trip to Kenya. They were aware of the walking for water crisis affecting a staggering 770+ million people worldwide. The grave conditions became real to them when they befriended some of the Maasai women walking 18 miles each day just to collect water and seeing their children who couldn’t walk to school as it was too far and too dangerous. Carmela and Julia were gifted a beautiful ceremonial artifact by one of the Maasai leaders in the community. This act of kindness to Americans that have everything, from people that have little to give, made a profound impact. That moment led them to find a way to help this community.
Little did they realize the world would come to a halt in March 2020 with the Covid-19 pandemic. Forced to stay in our homes, we started making face masks, sewing them at the kitchen table, and then selling them to family, friends, and others in our community. They sold over 1,200 masks and had the funds to build the first water well project and school for the Maasai community. During the process, they were surprised to learn that none of the big water charities they contacted built their own projects as they outsourced them, nor were any interested in helping them build in Amboseli, Kenya, as it’s too complicated and expensive for any of the organizations we contacted. Determined not to give up, Julia and Carmela formed Love Tribe Project, which became a Federally Accredited Charity in June 2020. During the global lockdown, they completed the first water project and school for their Maasai friends in their village of Sumuneria.
They have since gone on to fund several complex and expensive water projects in communities that were dismissed by larger water charities, and they have built new schools in those villages providing the gift of education and generational change. By providing clean water and education, they have empowered women and girls in these communities to have a better and brighter future. Together, generational change in the Maasai is possible and perhaps one day the destiny of a Nation.
In just two years, Love Tribe Project has successfully built three complex water projects ranging from $35,000 -$50,000, built five schools, launched a women’s enterprise program and other needed projects, including school toilets, electric fencing, and established a team on the ground in Kenya that oversees and manages the projects. Love Tribe Project also offers annual safaris to Kenya to visit their projects.
To learn more about Love Tribe Project or to get involved, please visit their website www.lovetribeproject.com/donate.
