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Kenya Airways and Wildlife Works allow you to travel the world while protecting the environment
Kenya Airways has teamed up with Wildlife Works to allow passengers to offset the carbon emissions from every flight. To help spread the word, Kenya Airways has included Wildlife Works in their in-flight magazine. The following is extracted from the feature in Msafiri magazine: Each time you travel with Kenya Airways, the airline gives you the option to offset the environmental cost of your flight simply by checking a box, and know that you can enjoy seeing the world and help to safeguard the future of the planet at the same time. Choosing to voluntarily offset the carbon emissions produced by your flight is a credible IATA (International Air Transport Association) approved way…
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Building the Future: Residents of Mwatate Get A Taste Of Wildlife Works REDD
Residents of the town of Mwatate have joined the other Taita County communities who can say, without a doubt, that environmental conservation pays well. The latest project funded by carbon credits, which was officially opened on June 8th, is expected to increase the community’s enthusiasm for taking care of the environment. The project involved building a modern classroom at Mwatate secondary school, which cost approximately $10,000 (Ksh 800,000). Taita Taveta County’s Deputy Governor, Mrs. Mary Digha, was guest of honor at the event and hailed the classroom, which can accommodate up to 40 students, as being in line with the Ministry of Education’s specifications for building classrooms. “The Kenya Ministry…
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Wildlife Works Voted Best Project Developer in Forestry
Wildlife Works Carbon LLC was voted best project developer in the forestry category of Environmental Finance and Carbon Finance Magazine’s Voluntary Carbon Market Rankings 2013. The first prize honor was decided through a vote of more than 700 members of the voluntary carbon trade. The industry rankings recognized the pioneering achievements of Wildlife Works’ REDD+ projects in Kenya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where Wildlife Works currently manages the protection of 1.2M acres of threatened forest that generates 5M tonnes of REDD+ carbon credits on behalf of landowners and 150K people from the local communities. REDD+, an acronym for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, is an…
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Grace Wanjala: Sewing her own future
Grace Wanjala began school as a young girl, but was forced to abandon her studies at age 14, due to a lack of funding. Grace, now 22 years old, remembered putting away her school uniform at Class Eight, knowing in the back of her mind that she would never put it on again. This was a real blow for the young girl, but Grace had no one to pay her school fees expect for her father who had lost his job. Grace accepted her situation and tried to make the best of it. Regardless of the setbacks, Grace had hope that there would still be a great future for her…
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Not a drop to drink: Building water tanks in arid lands
For the people of the Kasigau area where our Rukinga Wildlife Sanctuary is located, a normal day involves walking many miles to collect or purchase clean water. With urbanization and changes in lifestyles, water consumption is increasing at a tremendous rate. Kasigau is considered an ASAL (arid and semi-arid land), where water shortages are the norm. The lack of clean water leads to unhealthy living situations, forcing humans and wildlife to drink contaminated water, which can lead to water-born diseases. Our conservation strategy that falls under the REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) carbon offset marketplace includes the implementation of community improvement projects that aim to ameliorate these…
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Cleaning day: Everybody do your share!
With no real infrastructure to manage waste, residents of many rural towns are neither motivated nor educated about why they shouldn’t litter. As a result, many towns, like our neighboring town of Maungu, are overburdened by noncompostable trash thrown in the streets. Part of Wildlife Works’ community education initiative focuses on teaching students how to reuse and recycle plastic items. On Oct 27th, duty called upon the residents of Maungu to join hands and remove all the polythene paper bags and plastic containers that constantly build up around the town. Wildlife Works and Marungu Hill Conservancy organize an event each year to ensure that the town is clean, and all…
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Kasim the gardener creates works of living art
Kasim has been a gardener at the Wildlife Works Rukinga Sanctuary Kasigau Corridor REDD+ Project for only a few months, but already his work speaks volumes. Kasim is a true artist, blessed with an innate sense of beauty that allows him to create imaginative landscaping including fun, natural signage that create a warm welcome for staff members and visitors to the sanctuary. The 47-year-old father of seven never got to finish his studies, due to lack of funds to pay school fees. He managed to get by, working security jobs at various institutions until he began working for Wildlife Works. Kasim doesn’t let his lack of formal schooling interfere with…
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Madam Colleta: Caring for the future of the community
One of the greatest comforts to a working mother is knowing that your child is safe and happy while you are away. No matter which corner of the globe you’re in, there is a constant need for affordable and reliable childcare. For Wildlife Works staff members in Rukinga, the free on-site preschool has been a blessing. Madam Colleta leads the team of 2 dedicated teachers who spend their days entertaining and educating 21 children aged 2-5 . Madam Colleta has been with the Wildlife Works preschool since it opened in January, 2012. The widowed mother of three spends her days teaching and feeding young children, while simultaneously providing for her…
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Kasigau Corridor Community Education Programs
The most crucial element to Wildlife Work’s conservation success is our community outreach and education programs. Theatre education is the most recent addition to our community outreach activities. The Talent Nurtures Troupe (TNT), a theatre group from Voi, a town 30 minutes west of our project area has partnered with Wildlife Works to spread awareness of conservation and the REDD project. TNT have much experience in entertaining and educational skits and have received a great deal of attention for their excellent work. In November, the 8 actors (3 ladies and 5 men) came to Rukinga Ranch for an orientation day, in which they gathered material for the WW skit. Following…
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Wildlife Works’ First Nursery
As the number of our employees grows, so do the families we support through their employment with Wildlife Works at our Kasigau Corridor REDD+ Project in Kenya. In January 2012, we opened our first onsite children’s nursery for our young parents, so they would have a place for their children to continue to grow and learn while they work to help support their family. Twenty parents are bringing their children to the nursery on a daily basis, and it is wonderful to see all the smiling faces every morning as they arrive. There are currently twenty-one kids, ranging in ages from 2 to 5, attending the nursery. With that many…