Maanda Ngoitiko still vividly remembers awakening one morning as a young teen to the sound of armed cattle rustlers surrounding her Tanzanian family’s boma (livestock grounds). What happened next would foretell her future: While others scattered, Ngoitiko swung into action.

“I gathered and herded all my father’s cows, while my male cousins saved theirs, and together we escaped into the hills,” she recalls.

When Ngoitiko returned home, her father rewarded her with a cow. While representing a material benefit, the gift set in motion something even more consequential: It reinforced Ngoitiko’s budding confidence in her own courage and autonomy. Hence when the local community eventually spoke of marrying her off as a child bride, she refused steadfastly. As Ngoitiko recalled some years later, “My father did not encourage me to continue with my schooling, but when I refused to get married, he listened and didn’t force me.”

Born on Maasai ancestral land in Tanzania’s Ngorongoro District, near the Serengeti, Ngoitiko would soon come to shape her own path—and the futures of many others. Today she numbers among eight women founders of the Pastoral Women’s Council (PWC), which since 1997 has transformed Maasai communities by promoting girls’ education, fighting child marriage, and empowering women to determine their own futures. Her continued community leadership ensures that PWC will find a permanent place in the civic record.

“When we started PWC there wasn’t a single Maasai woman teacher or doctor. Women were only expected to become wives,” Ngoitiko says. But that narrative is now changing: Maasai fathers now sell cows to educate their daughters, while mothers commonly run small businesses to pay school fees. Ngoitiko muses, “It’s like planting a tree. Now it’s bearing fruit.”

Through scholarships and advocacy PWC has already helped more than one hundred girls attend secondary school and university. The organization has supported women in gaining title deeds to community land, drilled boreholes serving over 14,000 people, and created spaces such as the Women’s Solidarity Boma, where women jointly own and manage livestock to sustain their families.

PWC’s work is supported by the Indigenous Movement for Peace Advancements and Conflict Transformation (IMPACT), led by Malih Ole Kaunga. Together the two organizations strengthen cross-border efforts to secure pastoralist land rights, protect natural resources, and preserve Indigenous heritage. Such collaborations demonstrate how local leadership can work together to help shape national and regional policy.

According to Ngoitoko the struggle for women’s rights and land justice is one and the same. “We are creating a legacy of resilience, leadership, and cultural continuity that honors our past while empowering those who come after us.”