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Meet Protus Mghendi, Wildlife Works Environment Conservation Ambassador
It’s a scorching hot day in Mwatate, in Wildlife Works’ project area, and the region continues to suffer from the current drought. A group of youth and women known as Malezi Bora sit quietly and attentively on the benches in the open air for a discussion about environment conservation. It is just another working day for Protus Tetweni Mghendi, an Assistant Community Relations Officer at Wildlife Works. The 35-year-old husband and father of one is very passionate about the environment. Mwatate area is similar to many other rural places in Kenya where residents are dependent on charcoal production, bush meat poaching and unsustainable agricultural methods to meet their survival. Deforestation…
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Encouraging Bright Leaders Through Educational Scholarships
Ambrose Maundu Gerald is looking forward to returning to school. The fourth year university student had a break while professors were on strike these last two months, his Bachelors in Education in the Arts on hold. “I like studying the environment and land form,” explained Ambrose, who volunteers his free time helping with the Wildlife and Environment Club at his alma mater primary school near his hometown of Kiteghe. The oldest of 3 kids in his family, Ambrose was raised in a single-parent household. His younger brother is starting university this year and the other is in his last year of secondary school. Their mother died when Ambrose was a teenager,…
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Motivational Speakers Inspiring Local School Kids
Wildlife Works runs a program of education initiatives for youth within our Kasigau Corridor REDD+ Project area. We strongly believe that children are ambassadors for change and for environmental stewardship and we work hard to empower them to do so. One of the programs we run is a series of motivational speakers that deliver talks to local students. They are individuals from the community who have an inspiring story to tell and lessons to share with youth. A motivational talk given under a neem tree at Marungu Primary School Since starting in 2014, we have held motivational talks at 16 schools, reaching well over 1,000 students. The aim is to…
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Scholarship Student Dreams of Medical School
“The greatest danger facing modern society today is not of dying without achieving your dreams but dying without dreaming at all.” This is the motto by which Sophia Tsenge lives. Sophia comes from a humble background in a family of seven, in Sasenyi Village in Taita Taveta County, Kenya, and is one of Wildlife Works education bursary beneficiaries. One of the core ways in which Wildlife Works supports local development is through distributing the profit made from carbon credits back into conservation project’s communities we serve. Much of the funding programs go towards supporting community groups who submit needs proposals for committee approval. Another major funding funnel is our education…
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Wildlife Works On-Site Nursery School Gets a Makeover
No matter where you are in the world, playtime at nursery school sounds the same – delighted shrieking and shouting erupts from tiny voices as soon as the kids are let free. There is no difference here at Wildlife Works’ on-site nursery school, except that recently the chorus has been extra loud (if that’s possible!) because the school has just had a makeover. Wildlife Works nursery school on site in Kenya Since January 2012, Wildlife Works has provided a nursery school free of charge for our employee’s children aged 2-5 at our Kasigau Corridor REDD+ Project in Kenya. This helps kids get an early start in their education and provides…
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Miasenyi Secondary School Gets Conservation Education Tour and Safari
Part of Wildlife Works community empowerment strategy includes ensuring that underprivileged students get the chance to view their beautiful ecosystem and see wildlife in its natural habitat. Since March 2015, the Wildlife Works Community Relations Department at our Kasigau Corridor REDD+ Project in Kenya has been running an education program for local students to tour the Wildlife Works diverse operations, learn about conservation at our Tsavo Discovery Center and experience wildlife firsthand. Since the program started just over a year ago, over 25 schools have participated, bringing over 750 students through our curriculum. The aim is to eventually reach 80 schools in the area. On 20th May 2016, Wildlife Works…
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ASOS Foundation Continues to Fund Wildlife Work’s Community
Wildlife Works partners with ASOS, a large online retailer in Europe that produces with our affiliate factory SOKO, to implement ASOS Foundation funded initiatives in Kenya. Two local development projects that have recently been completed by this partnership are the construction of a water pipeline and the making of lockers and chairs for Buguta Secondary School in Taita Taveta County, Kenya. The ASOS Foundation has funded the construction of 5.7 km of pipeline to supply clean drinking water for domestic and human consumption to 150 households in the town of Mackinnon Road. The water originates from Mzima Springs in Tsavo National Park West, Kenya. The water pipeline project is managed by…
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Vision Impaired Scholarship Student Thrives Against All Odds
Since 2005, Wildlife Works’ Kasigau Corridor REDD+ Project has awarded over $260,000 in scholarship money to more than 3,200 top performing students in our project area. One student’s perseverance exemplifies how dedicated our beneficiaries are to meeting their goals. Martin was born in 1981 to Emmanuel Mwarigha and Fridah Mshai. His family lives in a small village called Itinyi Village in Voi Sub-county, Taita Taveta County. In his teenage years, he developed an illness that diminished his eyesight. But the toughest time in his life came when his father died in 2008. Martin was 27 at the time. “I was thrown into health-threatening stress. I felt that I had lost…
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Environmental Education For the Youth Through Sports
The highest percentage of environment destruction through poaching bush meat and charcoal burning involves mostly youths. Wildlife Works has developed many programs to educate young community members about eco-friendly alternatives such as eco-charcoal, growing trees seedlings and other environmental initiatives. These education and training programs, which are proposed by the community, are funded by carbon sales within our Kasigau Corridor REDD+ project as well as by donations from our partners and customers. In early September 2014, Wildlife Works launched a football tournament among six county locations within the Kasigau Corridor region, with the objective to educate the youth on protecting the environment and nurturing their talents. Before kick off and…
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Wildlife Works Sponsors Conservation Education and Safari for Kasigau Corridor School Kids
This is a shocking fact: most rural communities that live their entire lives bordering Tsavo National Park (adjacent to Wildlife Works’ Kasigau Corridor REDD+ Project) have never seen an elephant before. More likely than not, they have a contentious relationship with large wildlife, who destroy their farms and eat their livestock. Meanwhile, thousands or tourists come from all around the world and pay a lot of money each year to gaze at wildlife that share the same territory as these local communities. Most rural schools in Kenya cannot afford to take their students on educational field trips due to harsh conditions in the area. Most families are subsistence farmers who don’t…