Famous as the home of Mount Kilimanjaro, exotic Zanzibar, the Sarengeti Plains, and the Maasai, Tanzania lures travelersfrom all over the world. ELI offers many different volunteer opportunities in the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania. Based just outside Arusha, the programs are just 45 minutes from Kilimanjaro International Airport and a few hours from Kenya and its most famous sites. Volunteers can choose between working with two distinct communities: the Meru and the Maasai.

The Meru are a Bantu tribe who inhabit the foothills of Mt. Meru, the second highest muntain in Tanzania. The Meru tribe are predominantly farmers both cultivating crops and keeping livestock. The Meru area is flanked by hills that support abundant banana and coffee plantations and many trees. The Meru are a very approachable and welcoming people.

The Maasai are a Maa speaking Nilo-Hamitic group who have in large part retained their traditional culture. They are purely pastoralists inhabiting the northern part of Tanzania. The typical Maasai are generally tall slender people living off milk, blood (especially where water is scarce), and meat. Few Maasai receive education vital to equip them to master their environment in a way that will sustain them in the future. Volunteers working with the Maasai community will stay in a typical Maasai hut and must be prepared to live without the modern conveniences of running water and electricity.