Nomads I Have Known and Loved: A Thirty-Year Journey into the Cultures, Customs, Homes and Hearts of Africa's Tribal Peoples Paperback – September 27, 2014

Irma Turtle is Founder and President of TurtleWill. Previously she was Director of Turtle Tours, an adventure travel company specializing in unique remote tribal peoples. In 1984, Irma left a lengthy career in advertising in New York and Brazil to seek something more personally meaningful. In 1985, after a trip to North Africa and a glimpse into the unique hearts, cultural traditions and ancient lifestyles of nomadic peoples, Irma launched Turtle Tours in tribute to the tenacity of these tribal groups to survive intact into the 21st century. Irma's love for her tribal friends was reciprocated, giving her personal entree into tribal societies. She witnessed directly the many needs of these peoples who receive little or no help from their governments and worked out their priorities with them. The result was the birth of TurtleWill in 1997, followed by appointment to nonprofit status in 2001. The name TurtleWill comes in response to the question “Who will help these people?” The answer: ”Turtle will!” Helping to keep these tribal communities and their lifestyles stable were TurtleWill's primary objectives, recognizing that assimilation comes quickly when tribal people are forced to give up their traditions and way of life. Her own tenacity plus the dedication of her many Turtle Tours travelers to her cause made TurtleWill a success. Working in Niger, Mali and Ethiopia TurtleWill's achievements included funding 35 remote primary bush schools for nomadic children; TurtleWill’s Mobile Medical Clinics treating 102,000 nomadic patients without other access to medical help; digging 56 clean wells; empowering over 5000 women through the funding of 106 cooperatives. In January, 2013 Irma closed TurtleWill, after passing the torch of its educational programs in Niger and Mali to three American foundations. Irma’s TurtleWill legacy is carried on by Caravan to Class and FACES, Foundation Advancing Cultural and Economic Survival in Mali, and Rain for the Sahara and the Sahel in Niger. Irma Turtle is featured, along with the Dalai Lama, in an international television series called "Nomads of the Human Condition" airing as of 2003. Irma lives in the desert of Cave Creek, Arizona, surrounded by eccentric and artistic friends, coyotes, cactus, bobcats and javelinas, gnomes and fairies. She is also a poet and visual artist, doing colorful drawings she calls “Folk Art of the Heart” which illustrate her book, “The Most Important Thing You Bring. ”