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	Masai MD

Masai MD

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• Nowhere Else to Go

Masai MD tells the story of a Masai girl from a remote part of Kenya who goes to study medicine in Chicago.

Sitatian Kaelo and her friends Nashipae and Agnes will become the first Masai women doctors, a huge boost to a tribe which has long been marginalised.

Historically, Masai women have not had an opportunity to go to school, and were circumcised and married off from as young as nine years old. Economically, few of either gender could afford an education, perpetuating the cycle of poverty.

So how do you go from a mud hut and an illiterate family to being a straight A student and medical school? A dynamic Masai charity - MED - is helping to break the mould, and these girls are among the first crop of educated Masai women.

It's a responsibility that Sitatian takes seriously, thanks to the community which helped fund her school studies and her mother who gives her a pep talk on the eve of her departure to the USA.

"We're giving you a pen and paper - this is the spear and this is the shield.  So, go to a foreign land and go and do something with it," her mother says.

Sitatian plans to get her MD and then return to Kenya and to her village to work as a doctor and as a mentor to other girls trying to fulfil their dreams. 

This film offers an intimate snapshot of a Masai family, and while doing so captures the beauty of their ancient traditions of music, costume and culture.