Fundraising to Provide Clean Water in Kenya
While this year’s annual fundraiser may be sold-out, Love Tribe Project is appealing to those wanting to make a real difference in the lives of the human and animal residents of Kenya’s Amboseli region, home of the Massai people.
Founded in 2020, the Orange County, Calif., 501(c)(3) works directly with Maasai communities to drill clean-water boreholes and wildlife waterholes, protect wildlife and communities, build schools and sanitation facilities, sponsor children’s education, support healthcare and create infrastructure that can help communities become sustainable and self-sufficient.
According to Carmela Phillips, Love Tribe Project founder, despite all the tickets for this year’s Legacy Private Donor Event on August 22, 2026, selling out, additional funds are needed to continue the organization’s critical work for the people and wildlife in Kenya’s Amboseli region, home to the Massai tribe.
“We are grateful that the response to Love Tribe Project in the U.S. continues to grow,” said Phillips. “Beyond all of our accomplishments, there are more Maasai communities that need access to clean water, more children who want to attend school, and more waterholes to drill along critical elephant and other wildlife migration routes throughout the Amboseli.”
“Our work has only just begun – and those who cannot join us in person or live outside Southern California can still make a direct impact through their donations.”
The Live Tribe Project story began in July 2020 when Phillips met a group of Maasai warriors on a trip to Kenya and saw firsthand the plight of some of the more than 770 million people forced to walk hours or even days for fresh water. The Maasai women who she befriended gave her a ceremonial artifact – an extraordinary act of kindness that prompted Phillips and a small group of friends in California to mobilize their community to help.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, preventing Phillips and her friends from traveling to Kenya, they started making COVID masks from colorful designer fabrics and selling them to their U.S. friends, family and supporters. More than 1,200 masks were made during that first year alone – enough to fund the first water well and school for the Maasai community.
Since then, Love Tribe Project has raised the funds and directly built projects that are transforming life for Maasai communities and protecting wildlife throughout Kenya’s Amboseli region — while directing 97% of funds raised back to its projects and mission.
To date, Love Tribe has built 16 clean-water boreholes, nine elephant and wildlife waterholes, 17 classrooms, eight electric wildlife-protection fences and five toilet blocks; sponsored 64 Massai to attend school; constructed a solar-power plant and neonatal incubator at a maternity hospital; and assembled a team of five Maasai team members to plan, build and maintain projects onsite.
“Today, we can stand beside the boreholes, visit the wildlife waterholes, walk through the classrooms and meet the children and families whose lives have been changed because of Love Tribe Project,” Phillips said. “These aren’t just numbers in a report. We have been there and seen the results ourselves.”
“Our first six years demonstrate what is possible when caring individuals want to make an impact and decide they don’t need to wait for governments or large institutions to solve problems and change lives.”
Want to help? To inquire about fundraising, volunteering and other opportunities, visit lovetribeproject.com