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Wildlife Warrior Program – the past month

Over the past month, we have conducted a range of Wildlife Warrior activities in our supported schools.

This term’s theme has been “Living with Elephants”. We decided to choose a positive theme to engage with the children, and provide real ideas and examples for the children and communities on how to coexist with wildlife.

Our project coordinator David has been busy, visiting the schools and showing  the children conservation videos which highlight the challenges and solutions of living with elephants. The children were enthralled, and David was excited to learn that for some of them this was their very first video!

After the videos David held a question and answer session, and led a discussion on elephants and living with wildlife. The reaction of the children showed that this was a worthwhile effort, as based both on their responses to the questions asked and their own questions they had learned a lot. The teachers were not left out as they had a lot to learn as well.

The children are now in groups and drawing posters based on the termly theme. In a few weeks poster competitions will be held at each of the schools, judged by a panel of staff and guests from the nearest Elewana property. The winning groups will be awarded a game drive to the nearest conservation area and get a chance to visit the nearest camp or lodge for a treat!

We have also given all teachers a small token of appreciation for all their efforts in supporting the Wildlife Warrior activities in their schools. In total, we have given teachers incentives worth USD 580.

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This Christmas help us keep their wishes alive

Christmas is here and, in keeping with the season, I want to share a story packed with hope and good news. And I hope you’ll make more stories like this come true.

Elosy is 15 years old. She lives with her mother and younger sister in a small village near Elsa’s Kopje neighboring the Meru National Park. Her father was killed by robbers 8 years ago and now her mum is the sole provider.

Her mother runs a simple grocery shop but what she earns barely pays for rent and food. This story is all too common in rural communities across Kenya.

Elosy dreams of being an electrical engineer. With the help of her school, she’s working hard to make her dream come true. She knows it’s only with hard work and determination that she can live a better life.

It’s rare that families can afford to give their children the chance of a life that we take for granted. Education in Kenya is out of reach of most rural communities, meaning a life of poverty and hardship for so many children.

But you can help children like Elosy. So far, the Land & Life Foundation has given 19 youngsters the chance to fulfill their dreams through our Wildlife Warrior Scholarship program. We still have 8 more children who desperately need funding and next year, we’re hoping to change even more futures.

Remember a time when someone helped your wish come true? This Christmas, make that person be you.

Here’s how you can do it:

  • $100 will just about cover a family trip to the cinema, but that same amount will send a pupil on conservation training, vital to their education
  • $200 might buy you a dinner for two, but it can pay for a child to receive tuition for a whole term
  • $600 gets you a scuba diving trip, but it also pays for someone like Elosy to attend school for an entire year

Please show your gratitude this Christmas and join us today to grant youngsters like Elosy their wish and a promising future.

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Let’s stand by Fredy

Meet Fredy

Meet Fredy, he’s one of our Wildlife Warriors and a star pupil who just completed his first year at secondary school. He’s very smart, ranking top of his class, enjoys all his lessons (his favourite subjects are Biology and Physics) and like many boys his age, loves football and athletics. More than anything, Freddy loves attending school.

Fredy lives with his extended family near Kitich Camp in the Mathews Mountain Range – an area of outstanding natural beauty and a place that means so much to him. He’s determined to help protect his home and areas like it, by becoming a Manager of Conservation at Namunyak Wildlife Conservancy.

Just one year ago, Fredy’s future was uncertain. He is an orphan and currently lives with his ageing grandmother who can’t afford to pay for his education. However, thanks to the unwavering support of our friends and supporters at Land & Life Foundation, he is now attending and excelling in school, and his future looks brighter than ever. You can be part of that future too.

$200 will cover Fredy’s tuition for one school term in his fourth and final year. Please stand by Fredy and donate now to help him finish school.

With eight new scholars enrolling as Wildlife Warriors, we need your help:

  • $200 will pay for one child’s tuition for one school term of their secondary schooling
  • $600 will pay for one child’s tuition for one year of secondary school
  • $2,200 will pay for one child’s tuition for the entire four years of secondary school

All your support & generosity goes a long way in investing in the future of our scholars and communities. Please join us today to give promising youngsters like Fredy a brighter tomorrow.

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Bringing the wildlife to the Warriors

The theme for this year’s World Day for Audiovisual Heritage is “it’s your story – don’t lose it”. We’ve found the perfect way to promote the day as part of our Wildlife Warrior Program.

In partnership with local schools, the Wildlife Warrior Program gives community leaders of tomorrow, the skills and experience to work in harmony with the environment and wildlife, protecting them for generations to come. By educating students today, we hope to build a bright and sustainable future.

We have recently introduced the use of conservation videos in our program. This has given us the opportunity to teach conservation themes in a more practical and exciting way to the students. And the more we can engage the students, the more they are likely to excel at their studies.

In the recent past, we have shown conservation videos to children from some of our supported schools. This has been received with great joy by both the children and the teachers – some of whom have had the chance to see motion pictures for the first time in their lives.

The videos have had a really positive effect on the children, bringing the subjects even more to life as it broadens their understanding of nature and wildlife conservation. The films can add a new depth to the studies, showing how conservation works at both local and international levels.

After the great success we’ve had so far, we’ll continue to show the films to all our supported schools and hope to continue the fantastic impact they’ve had.

Wildlife Warrior Program Term 3 updates

The relationship between wildlife, environment and the communities of East Africa is a fragile and complex story. Natural habitats are under constant threat from development, farmer’s crops and livestock destroyed by wildlife and as demand for space gets greater, these conflicts will increase.

At Land & Life we’re all driven to build a positive future. And that’s why our Wildlife Warrior Program is so important. You might remember us introducing you to the program last month, and Sharon, one of our successful Warriors who will make such a positive difference to the future of her community.

The excitement is building for the future warriors as they get closer to finding out who will be chosen to go forward, and over the last two weeks, there’s been a beehive of activity.

Exam time is in full swing. Working with school staff, students at Esiteti, Kachiuru, Engilae, Ura Gate and Ololomei Primary Schools have now sat their Wildlife Warrior Scholarship exam. It hasn’t been easy but then we need to make sure we only choose the most dedicated and passionate students to go forward.

Our Project Coordinator David Mbugua traveled to Tortilis, Kitich and Elsa’s to deliver the exams in the respective schools. At EPC the managers sent camp guides to administer the exam on our behalf. “It’s been hard work but also a lot of fun” said David. “It’s wonderful to see how much the students want to be part of the scheme and help build a fantastic future for where they live”.

And for us and the students, the hard work doesn’t stop there. The L&L team in Nairobi now has to mark and grade all 50 of the Wildlife Warrior exam papers as we await the end of year results for all those who took it. Of the 50 students only 10 – 2 from each school – will be lucky enough to be awarded the scholarship in January 2017.

But luckily for the Warriors, it’s not all hard work. To reward them for their dedication and energy, we organized for students from two of the schools to take part in game drives.

On Thursday and Friday last week, 30 Wildlife Warriors from Embiti Primary School near Sand River got to experience a game drive at the Maasai Mara National Reserve and 6 Wildlife Warriors from Esiteti Primary School took part in one at Amboseli National Park, followed by a visit to Tortilis camp for lunch.

The children loved the experience and many of them got to see up close for the first time the amazing animals they learn about in school.

We’ve got huge hopes for our future Wildlife Warriors and whoever goes through, we know they’ll share our passion and dedication for protecting wildlife and helping communities grow sustainably.

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Wildlife Warrior Scholarship Program 2016

Today we would like to share the insights of the Wildlife Warrior Scholarship Program. Every year we select the top performing Wildlife Warriors from each of our supported schools to join the scholarship program.

This year, we have already started the process of selecting the scholars for the year 2016/2017. We have distributed 90 scholarship application forms to all the schools from which we have selected 51 Wildlife Warriors to sit the scholarship exam.

The scholarship exam is conservation-based and will be administered in all the participating schools by the L&L team with the help of the respective camp managers and camp guides. We, the L&L team in Nairobi, will then embark on marking and grading the exams.

The last step will be to select the top 10 scholars (2 from each school) to join the Wildlife Warrior Scholarship Program. This will be done based on their performance in the scholarship exam and their end of year exams.

The whole Scholarship Selection Process is designed to avoid any politics and we always ensure that the scholarships are awarded to the most deserving pupils from each school.

The new scholars who will be selected at the end of this year will bring the number of the scholarship beneficiaries to 29. Our commitment is to pay 75% of their school fees up until they complete secondary school education.

We will let you know once the selection process is complete but before then, if you would like to know more about our current scholars click here.

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Wildlife Warrior Scholar’s Retreat 2016

Today we would like to share some wonderful insights of our Wildlife Warrior Scholars’ Retreat, held in August thanks to your generous donations.

Held at Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, the 3-day event brought together 19 Wildlife Warrior Scholars for guided game drives, drama and conservation education classes, providing an exciting opportunity for the scholars to broaden their awareness on conservation issues.

Lead by a Kenyan drama teacher, the highlight of the retreat for the scholars was learning to develop performance and creative thinking skills and, by the end of the retreat, they put on a short play based on the Importance of Forests.
It was a fun few days for the scholars, filled with learning and new experiences, and they are all looking forward to next year’s retreat, which will include an element of fun team-building exercises as well as a focus on gender and culture.

Special thanks go to all our donors who sponsored this retreat! As well as Lewa Safari Camp and Lewa Wildlife Conservancy for their support – we could not have done this without you.

Firstly, on behalf of my family, I take this opportunity to thank and appreciate your effort of paying my school fees.  Secondly, the retreat that you cater for gives us an opportunity to interact with students from other parts of the country and helps us get exposed socially and academically.  I am looking forward to continue working with you again! – Hassan Abdi

Our bright scholars come from poor families and rely on people like you to give them the opportunity to go to school. Sharon, Fredy, Evalyn, Beatrice, Haron and Elosy still need help with funding for their school fees next year – click here to find out more about them and their individual funding needs, or feel free to write to us to find out more.

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How you can nurture Kenya’s young conservationists

Kenya’s young conservationists never cease to inspire us and our supporters around the world. Every single one of our Wildlife Warrior Scholars was born and raised in a remote area surrounded by wildlife. Each one is the son or daughter of a long lineage of respected herdsmen. Theirs is the first generation with the opportunity to go to school. Their parents, grandparents and community elders appreciate just how important education is for a brighter future.
And you are a huge part of that future. Thanks to the generosity of friends like you, our Wildlife Warrior scholars have been encouraged and supported to excel in their studies. Today, I am writing to tell you about one more step you can take to nurture our outstanding youngsters…

Daniel & Lilian During the 2015 RetreatYou can Sponsor a Scholar to attend our upcoming Wildlife Warrior Retreat, bringing Kenya’s most promising young conservationists one step closer to achieving their shared dream – to become one of Kenya’s top conservationists.
This year’s retreat takes place later this month, so your support will help to change a young person’s life in a matter of days.
At the three-day retreat on Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, our 19 scholars will engage with experts, debate key conservation issues, bring out their creative side through drama sessions and explore the area on inspirational game drives.
It costs $100 to host one scholar at the retreat. Please will you consider sponsoring one promising youngster to join us this month?
Not only will you be giving one scholar the experience of a lifetime, you will also be investing in the future of their local community. Every scholar uses their learnings to teach their peers and families about why conservation matters.
We hope you will join us again today, to help give these promising youngsters the experience of a lifetime. Thank you so much for your time and and ongoing support.

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Another Milestone for the Land & Life Foundation

Recently, we held our first Wildlife Warrior Program Poster Competition at Embiti Primary School near Sand River Mara (SRM). The children drew amazing posters based on this term’s theme ‘The Importance of Forests’. A group from the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) based in Thailand and who were staying at SRM also joined us at the school.

SRM Camp guides together with teachers from Embiti sat in the judging panel while the YPO group and members of the School Management Committee formed part of the audience.

The highlight of the event was when the group announced that they would sponsor all the pupils from Embiti to go on a Game Drive to the Maasai Mara National Reserve. The children and their teachers were elated upon hearing the good news!

The group also pledged a further $1,000 donation through the Land & Life Foundation to the School. This donation will go a long way to fund the much-needed toilets.

Many thanks to Claudia de Vries together with the rest of the Sky Safari team, Julia Binks, George and Theresa (SRM Camp Managers) and all SRM Camp guides for their help.

Last but not least, we are very excited to inform you that our online payment system is now activated. Donors can now support our life-changing work from the comfort of their own homes and places of work. Please share this good news with all your contacts and agents.

As always, if you have any questions about our work, please feel free to contact our team.

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Wildlife Warrior Program Highlights

As our Wildlife Warrior Program approaches the end of term, we wanted to share some highlights with you.
This term’s theme was The Importance of Forests, focusing on:

  1. Types of forests
  2. Various terms associated with forests like afforestation, reforestation and deforestation
  3. Causes and impacts of deforestation
  4. How to protect forests

Thanks to all the camp managers and guides who have generously supported this term’s theme by giving engaging and inspiring talks at our supported schools.

The newest highlight of the Wildlife Warrior Program is the Debate Competition, which has already taken place at Ura Gate Primary School near Elsa’s and Ololomei Primary School near Elephant Pepper Camp (EPC). Huge thanks go to Patrick & Sophie at EPC for taking the time to preside over the competition at Ololomei, and to Elsa’s guides who supported the competition at Ura Gate.

Next week, the Debate Competition moves to Esiteti Primary School near Tortilis and Engilae Primary School near Kitich. We are also holding a Poster Competition at Embiti Primary School, the newest entrant to the Wildlife Warrior Program. We are particularly delighted to be hosting a group from the Young Presidents’ Organization during the Poster Competition, so they can see the Wildlife Warrior Program in action. You will find photos of their visit and the competitions on our website and social media pages after next week.

Recently, as part of our partnership work with the Ngilae community near Kitich, we held a two-day Bee Keepers’ training event. During the event, which trained 12 members of the local community, Mr. Kenneth Kaburu of African Beekeeper Ltd. gave a lecture on beekeeping using the Langstroth beehive. This training was a key moment in the project, as it brought together a range of people from Ngilae, all of whom want to improve their livelihoods through beekeeping.