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More Books for Ganako Primary

Ganako Primary School in Karatu, Tanzania has once again received a generous book donation. This donation came from  from Ken Kurzweil and Suzanne Sunday who visited The Manor Ngorongoro earlier in the year. Thanks to their generosity, Land & Life was able to purchase 260 text books and 10 teacher’s books for the school.

The books were delivered to Mr Lembris the Headteacher on Monday October 2nd, and handed out to students to have a look at. Everyone was delighted, and sent great appreciation to the donors.

Ganako, which had absolutely no books at all when we first visited in March, now has 10 or 20 copies of each subject for every year, from Standard 4 through to 7, and once the Ministry of Education completes the new syllabus and publishes the new books, we hope to complete the set and get books for the other years as well.

The school committee have asked for our help in building a kitchen. The existing structure is built of wooden planks and poles, and is extremely basic.

From this they try to feed nearly 500 people and it is both awkward, unhygienic, and costly in terms of use of firewood. On our recent visit, Mr Lembris took us to see a nearby school which has a clean brick built kitchen housing a huge fuel-efficient stove capable of catering for 600 students. We are in the process of obtaining quotes, and will be moving forward with the construction shortly. Once again the funds for this have come from Ken and Suzanne, and we are so excited to be helping the school with this exciting infrastructural development.

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Groundbreaking Ceremony at Esiteti Primary

Exciting times at Esiteti Primary in Amboseli, near to Tortilis Camp. Thanks to a generous donation from the A E Reimann Foundation, a large-scale construction project is underway.  Two large classrooms accommodating forty students a-piece are being constructed, complete with full rainwater harvesting system. The classrooms will be added to the existing school buildings and will reduce the current pressure on the school, where students are crowded in and the designated computer lab is being used as a classroom instead.

The groundbreaking ceremony was held on Thursday 21st September and was attended by many of the school students as well as representatives of the school committee, the Headmistress Mrs Phides, Candy Smith manager at Tortilis Camp, Hannah and Steve from Land & Life and of course the contractors Cosmos Ltd.

After a ceremonial prayer and words of welcome from the headmistress, the contractors formally broke ground, and then everyone had a turn including students and teachers! It was a lively and exciting event and everyone looks forward to watching the progress as the classrooms take shape. We expect completion before the end of the year so watch this space for updates!

It is thanks to generous donations from visitors, made to address real urgent needs within the communities, that the Land & Life Foundation is able to continue to make a real difference to the lives of communities living in and around wildlife areas. Thanks for all your support,  everyone!

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Mwaroni Primary joins the Wildlife Warrior Program

We are delighted to announce that we have found a new partner school to participate in our Wildlife Warrior program.  Mwaroni Primary School is located in Diani Beach, Kenya, just a fifteen minute drive from Elewana’s Afrochic. With 631 students currently enrolled, and 20 teachers, Mwaroni is a lively school with a lot going on.

Mwaroni Primary has an active wildlife and environment club already, which is busy planting seedlings in the school nursery ready to plant out around the school grounds. The club is led by enthusiastic teachers Mrs Joyce and Mrs Mwamba. The Wildlife Warrior Club will work with the school environment club and we hope to help the children to go on some exciting field trips to nearby Mombasa.

Existing tree nursery

Wildlife club nursery

Tuition block

Semi-complete classroom blocks

Land and Life will also be raising funds for the school to buy a photocopier, and then provide much needed repairs to the girls toilet block which currently has no doors. Anyone who would like to help with these projects, please see our Ways-To-Give page and let us know your donation is for Mwaroni. You can also visit the school yourself, any time you find yourself relaxing in Diani.

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Land & Life and Elewana Collection host celebrations for World Sustainable Tourism Day!

An enjoyable evening was had by all at Arusha Coffee Lodge in Tanzania, where Land & Life and Elewana Collection hosted a celebration of UNWTO World Sustainable Tourism Day. Approximately 80 representatives from the top tier of Tanzania’s travel and tourism industry came together to celebrate the achievements in community and conservation and the strides taken in sustainable tourism in Tanzania. Live music, canapes and drinks welcomed the guests to Arusha Coffee Lodge as they mingled.

Guests included the Vice Chairman of the Board of Tanzanian Association of Tour Operators (TATO) Henry Kimambo and the CEO Sirili Akko, the Chairman of the African Travel and Tourism Association (ATTA) Julian Edmunds, and the team from Responsible Tourism Tanzania (RTTZ) Damian Bell and Julius Lesanoi.

Government representatives included Mr Michael Ndaisaba Tourism Officer from Arusha City Council and Ms Flora Mwambo from Arusha Regional Commissioner’s office.

The private sector was well represented, with attendees from almost all the large scale and many smaller local tour operators and hospitality companies, food and beverage suppliers, and more.

The guests enjoyed watching the Official Message from the President of the UNWTO Mr Taleb Rifai, who spoke of the need to work together to harness the power of sustainable tourism to contribute to global development. Guests also watched a short film from the International Year of Tourism 2017 team’s Travel.Enjoy.Respect. campaign and heard some words from Elewana Collection’s Hannah Wood on the importance of a sustainable approach to tourism and the activities of the private sector in conservation and community.

A light-hearted “Do-ers and Dreamers” competition was held, for companies and organisations to highlight their sustainability achievements to date and to encourage conversation and sharing of innovative ideas. Prizes were donated by Shanga by Elewana and the Honeyguide Foundation and the judging panel consisted of Damian Bell and Julius Lesanoi (RTTZ), and Tira Schubert (London-based East African and conservation specialist journalist).

First prize for sustainable tourism practice in action was won by Laurens Sans of Nyayo Discovery for their impressive range of community and conservation activities, including donating 10% of all profits to projects supporting local Maasai tribes. The prize for most innovative future suggestion was awarded to Niall Anderson of &Beyond for suggesting banning the use of fins in marine parks as so much damage is done to coral and marine life directly from fin use.

The evening was a great success, generating much discussion of the role of the individual stakeholder in sustainable tourism and the importance of the sector in contribution to regional development. Land & Life and the Elewana Collection are happy to have hosted the event and plans will be made for a follow up event next year.