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UN World Water Day 2018 – Wildlife Warrior Essay Competition

March 22nd saw the celebration world wide of UN World Water Day 2018. This year the theme was The Answer is in Nature – a principle with which we entirely agree! The concept explores how we can use nature to overcome the water challenges of the 21st century. Here in East Africa the problems of the world water crises are in evidence every single day, and affect both people and wildlife on a daily basis.

From the severe droughts experienced in recent years, to the heavy flooding in both remote and rural areas, the challenges run deep. Environmental damage, together with climate change, is driving the water-related crises we see around the world. Floods, drought and water pollution are all made worse by degraded vegetation, soil, rivers and lakes. When we neglect our ecosystems, we make it harder to provide everyone with the water we need to survive and thrive.

Nature-based solutions have the potential to solve many of our water challenges. We need to do so much more with ‘green’ infrastructure and harmonize it with ‘grey’ infrastructure wherever possible. Planting new forests, reconnecting rivers to floodplains, and restoring wetlands will rebalance the water cycle and improve human health and livelihoods.

 

 

These concepts are all ones we have explored this term with our Wildlife Warrior Clubs. During sessions in each school, our team has discussed the causes and impacts of flooding and drought, drought resilience and locally appropriate ways to manage and conserve water. At the end of each session, the children were set an essay relating to the theme, and given a few weeks to write and submit their entries.

 

 

We had some excellent entries from groups of children in Ura Gate Primary, Esiteti Primary and in Kachiuru Primary; we had individual entries from students in Mwaroni Primary and Esiteti Primary. The range of entries has been impressive and it has taken our team some time to work through all of them and choose ones which are worthy of special mention – so many of the essays were brilliantly written, demonstrating a remarkable grasp of the issues at hand. What was even more interesting was how much the children had understood and could discuss the issues and solutions relevant to their own local communities – ideas which we had hardly covered, but they were able to contribute from their own experience and ideas.

So without further ado we are delighted to announce the following :
Winner –  Group  Work 
Esiteti Primary – Donkey Group
 
Winners – Individual
1st : Mwaroni Primary – Peter Oscar Otieno
2nd : Ura Gate Primary- Dorcus Kagendo Nyagah
Each winner will receive a small gift pack containing a school bag, a geometrical set, a special silver trophy, a scientific calculator and a UN certificate of participation in the World Water Day Challenge.
The winners will also be rewarded with a trip to their nearest Elewana Property and a game drive with a  professional guide.
Well done to Esiteti Primary Donkey Group, and to Peter and Dorcas – we are very proud of you!
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Mwaroni Primary Wildlife Warrior Club – first session!

This month saw Mwaroni Primary School in Diani join the Wildlife Warrior Program for real. Steve and Millicent from Land & Life visited the school and had a meeting with the school committee and the staff. Once the discussion was completed, the Memorandum of Understanding was signed, ensuring both school and Land & Life are on the same page going forwards. These agreements help Land & Life to ensure that all donations received on behalf of the school are spent on worthwhile projects chosen in consultation with the school committee and the teachers. It is crucial to have these agreements, to make sure funds are spent wisely and transparently, and have maximum benefit for the whole community.

 

Once the admin was over, the fun could begin! Mwaroni already had its own internal wildlife and environmental club, and its members were thrilled to see further attention being paid to their interest area. With the addition of Class 7 and 8 students, the numbers of the club members increased dramatically. Steve and Millicent started the session, on Water Conservation and Drought Resilience, and screened a David Attenborough video as well. The students thoroughly enjoyed the day, and got involved in all aspects of the activities.

 

 

After the Wildlife Warrior Club session, the children sat down and immediately wrote their essays for the World Water Day essay competition – too eager to wait until they got home, they handed in their entries before Steve and Millicent even had time to pack up!

 

While we always enjoy holding these sessions, this one was a particular joy. The children were so incredibly excited, and it is great to be a part of something as exciting as bringing a new school on board. The future success of the Program here in Diani depends on a regular flow of donations to support the school infrastructure and the conservation education activities here. If you or someone you know has a particular interest in Diani and its locale, or simply would like to help these bright young students grow and learn, please do click here and make a contribution. We are grateful for every donation :)

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Digital Literacy Training Programme Takes Off

In partnership with the Lewa Digital Education Program, Land & Life is very excited to have started the new digital literacy training program. The Government of Kenya’s amazing provision of tablets to primary schools across the country has been rolled out and now we have been able to help some of the schools get started with using them.

 

 

The first school to benefit has been Esiteti Primary in Amboseli. There two trainers from Lewa arrived with Steve from Land & Life and conducted  a two day training session with both students and teachers. Everyone was shown how to use the tablets and access the resources provided by the Government and the teachers were trained on teaching entire lessons with the tablets. It was a hugely successful event and we look forward to repeating the training at our other Wildlife Warrior Schools.

 

 

The next step at Esiteti is to be the purchase of an Annotator device which will allow the teachers to utilise the interactive whiteboard feature in class. We are also purchasing a wifi router to provide the school, for the first time, with access to the internet.

 

This will also have the added benefit of letting the Lewa training team conduct updates and further training remotely.

 

Watch this space for more updates, and please do contact us if you would like to get involved and support this amazing development

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Donations flooding in

This month has been a busy month for school donations, both in kind from generous donors and in funds which have been used to buy specific items for the schools.

Embiti Primary Wildlife Warriors were delighted to receive a solar light each to take home for their families. This donation came in a few months ago from Mary Jean Tully, who will be happy to hear that these young children each now have a way to do their homework in the evenings, not to mention helping the family get on with their daily lives. Embiti also benefitted from a number of donations from Sand River Mara guests including text books, stationery and crayons.

 

Esiteti Primary received 90 three seater locker desks courtesy of SKAL Monaco as part of the much wider projecty involving classroom construction and repair of the school.  Esiteti also received a good amount of stationery from other Tortilis guests, and are excited about the progress being made on their school farm.

 

Ura Gate Primary was over the moon to receive a large photocopier-printer as part of ongoing school development. This printer is more than a simple administrative tool – it will allow them to print off examinations thus generating income by becoming a regional examination centre.

 

 

Ololomei Primary has been having repairs and maintenance done on the semi permanent classrooms while the staff at Elephant Pepper Camp work hard to raise funds for a new permanent classroom. In the meantime they have received donations of clothes and books as well as, most recently, some new shoes!

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Wildlife Warrior Clubs busy with Water Conservation

Across Kenya the new year got underway with a raft of new Wildlife Warrior Club members taking part in their first sessions. At our existing schools Ura Gate, Ololomei, and Embiti Steve and Millicent from Land & Life dropped by for a day of fun activities, watching videos and playing games all focused on water conservation. Everyone had a good time and came up with some great ideas on drought resilience and water conservation, relevant to their own locations.

 

In an exciting development, this month we added Kachiuru Primary to the Wildlife Warrior Club network. Although we have had an existing relationship with this school for some time in terms of school infrastructural support we had not yet conducted any  conservation activities.  So we are delighted to announce 21 new Wildlife Warrior Club members from Kachiuru! They very much enjoyed their session and we look forward to developing this relationship further.

In the run up to World Water Day on March 22nd, all the schools are competing in a nationwide writing competition where students will be coming up with essays covering water conservation approaches and related ideas. The essays will be collected in and marked by the Land & Life team and a special expert in the field, and the winners will be announced around World Water Day itself.

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A few thank yous from Esiteti

Read more
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Visitor viewpoint at Randilen Wildlife Management Area

 

Randilen WMA lies on the North Eastern boundary of Tarangire National Park in Tanzania and is home to a wide range of wildlife species, including of course elephant, big cat and hundreds of bird species. As an integral part of the Tarangire-Manyara elephant dispersal area and a vital area of dry season grazing for the ungulates, Randilen’s existence is vital to the conservation and preservation of Tarangire Eco-system and to elephant in particular. Land & Life is dedicated to working here with the support of Elewana’s Tarangire Treetops. 

 

 

 

The success of Randilen depends on the generation of income for the community, largely from tourism and visitor numbers. Honeyguide Foundation, the implementing partner in Randilen, have been working hard to upgrade facilities there. now Land & Life are delighted to announce the completion of the amazing visitor viewpoint at Kilimambuti entrance gate. on top of the hill at Randilen WMA Main Gate. The new visitor information boards are carefully positioned up the path to the viewing deck and around the edging of the platform set against the bachdrop of the sweeping vistas provided by the Randilen WMA. The boards fascinating insights into Randilen WMA, the communiy, the ecosystem, wildlife and the conservation programmes with in the RWMA.the and provide fascinating insights into the wildlife, community and geography of Randilen.

 

 

These information boards will, it is hoped, further add to the visitor experience at Randilen, and ensure more and more people come to see this beautiful area. With more visitors comes more income, and thus more security for the community and for the elephant and other wildlife who depend on them.

 

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Wildlife Warrior winners get treated at The Manor

In Tanzania, students from Ganako Primary Wildlife Warrior Club had taken part in an essay competition, writing on “My career in conservation”  The eight top essays were selected by the Head Office Land & Life team, and the students along with their teacher were collected by a driver and brought up to the Manor Ngorongoro

 

 

 

Once on site at the lodge, General Manager Jani Scheffer her team made a special effort to give them a wonderful afternoon. They walked the grounds, met the horses, saw the fields and the vegetables, and finally were settled down for a fancy afternoon tea with cake and lovely treats prepared by Chef Benjamin. The students ha da  lovely time, and so did the staff, who really enjoyed watching the chi0dlren’s faces as they stroked the nose of the horse and tucked into cakes and pastries.

 

We are doubly proud top report this because it is a great way to start a New Year – the first Wildlife Warrior Club visit to the Manor and we are sure the beginning of a regular event. Thanks go out to the Manor who did such a great job and of course as ever to our sponsors and donors, whose support of Ganako via Land & Life has made these things possible.

 

 

 

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Giving Tuesday donations reach the schools

 

You may recall that the end of 2017 saw a great effort from staff at Elewana, Cheli & Peacock and Sopa Head Offices, where contributions were brought in for our Wildlife Warrior Schools as part of the global Giving Tuesday campaign. We can now report that finally after a few weeks of logistics and planning, the donations have been delivered to the schools.

 

 

 

 

 

In Kenya, Land & Life delivered boxes of toys and books and bags of food to Kachiuru Primary School in Isiolo County, while in Tanzania several boxes of foodstuffs, bags of clothes and an additional generous contribution of cleaning products and hygiene supplies from Robico Chemicals we taken to Ganako Primary School in Karatu. Staff from Land & Life, The Manor and Elsa’s Kopje were delighted to visit the school and chat to the staff and students, hand over the goods and enjoy some time together.

 

 

Discussions are already underway as to the expenditure of the remaining Giving Tuesday funds, which in Kachiuru will be used in the construction of a boys toilet block, while in Tanzania the funds will go into the pot to support Ganako’s kitchen construction, for which fund-raising is still underway.

 

To find out more or to contribute to either of these schools, please do click here  

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A visit to Plaster House Arusha

Arusha Coffee Lodge and the Shanga Foundation have been supporting Plaster House for nearly six years, and Land & Life is now delighted to be helping with this wonderful project as well. The Plaster House is a rehabilitation home for children requiring orthopaedic surgery, neurosurgery or corrective plastic surgery in northern Tanzania. The care provided to these children would otherwise not be available to them, and this help lifts many families out of despair, giving them hope for their children’s future.

 

On Tuesday of this week a group of staff from Land & Life, Coffee Lodge and Shanga visited Plaster House Arusha to hand over a selection of donations gathered from the lodge – sheets, pillows, and other linens as well as cutlery and crockery. The Plaster House team took time out from their schedules to give the Coffee Lodge staff a good tour of the facility, including the new wing which is nearly completed.

 

 

 

The new buildings were of particular delight to the Shanga staff. Shanga have generously made a contribution towards some beautiful hand-made stain glass windows (Dalle de Verre) for the administration block, new dormitory and volunteer wing. The artisans, Alec and Simon, who produced the windows were with the visiting group. They were overjoyed to see their handiwork in position and looking so stunning. It is wonderful to see examples of such fine work from professionals of their calibre who also happen to have a disability. It demonstrates to the children undergoing serious surgery that life can be about ability, possibility and what you CAN do achieved. The stain glass windows will serve as a daily reminder to the children to strive for their best and know they have the hope and opportunity of a bright future.

 

The Coffee Lodge and Shanga employees were delighted to meet a number of the children resident at the Plaster House, and have a chat with them in the classroom. This soon developed into a cheerful singing session in which everybody took part! Fun was had by everyone, children and visitors alike, and it reminded the lodge team how important the work we do to support Plaster House is.