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The tremendous support provided by those who attended our first fund-raiser helped give new energy and a heightened sense of responsibility to the causes we've been pursuing. As we indicated in our initial brochure and at our first fundraising dinner, the primary purpose of our visit to Kenya in May & June of this year was to complete projects planned earlier in the year to conduct our first official survey as Amara Conservation Ltd.
We spent two weeks with Julia Francombe working with the Samburu to rebuild
a nursery school in Northern Kenya. It was a very rewarding experience because
as well as paying for the construction and bringing school supplies, got to
get our hands dirty and work side by side with the locals. We were able to participate
directly, from beginning to end, and left a beautiful new school completed!
We also got an opportunity to see the water tank that we had purchased for the
Mara school, and bought them some schoolbooks and supplies. We completed a basic
assessment of needs for repairs and supplies for other Samburu and Maasai schools;
needs we plan to address in the near future.
The tremendous benefit of providing improved facilities and educational materials
for the schools' surrounding game reserves, is that at the same time we can
provide education for the children and their parents on broader conservation
issues. Many of the children, and even some of the teachers, have never seen
a lion or been close to giraffes, elephants and hippos. We took a large group
of Maasai kids on a game drive in the park, using Anne's Land Rover and a vehicle
donated for the afternoon by Kichwa Tembo Camp, as well as the vehicle that
had been rented for the snare sweep. We were able to take almost 100 kids! Unfortunately,
we came across a large female elephant who had lost nearly half of her trunk
to a snare - but at the same time, it was, perhaps, good for the children to
see first-hand just how terrible the damage can be even when a snare doesn't
kill. We also watched while the de-snaring team taught the schoolchildren about
their wildlife and some environmental issues. It was very rewarding to see how
the children responded - they are very eager to learn. Later, while we were
in the Mara, they started bringing in snares that they found, having learned
from the team just how destructive these things are. We are aware, however,
that we cannot take everyone into the bush.
We've discovered an interesting and valuable resource for improving understanding and appreciation of the wildlife and the environment: We met Simon Trevor, an experienced filmmaker who has worked on a number of well-known films, including Out of Africa, Gorillas in the Mist, The Congo, and much of the wildlife footage that you may have seen over the years on television. He lives in Tsavo East National Park, was a game warden for years, and really knows what he is doing. We were able to spend a couple of days with him and his daughter Tanya at their home in Tsavo, where they live with elephants often literally on their front porch! He's making new films and re-editing his footage to produce educational films narrated in local African languages (Swahili, Maa, Arabic and French) for distribution throughout the continent. His films cover topics ranging from elephants to rhinos to water resources and deforestation. He hopes to cover all of the major environmental issues that face Africa. Children and adults alike are fascinated when they have an opportunity to view his work with his mobile equipment, and we are planning to support his African Environmental Film Foundation in the distribution of educational films throughout Kenya. We were able to bring him speakers for his first mobile projection unit. (We're talking to him soon about posting QuickTime files of some of his footage here on the site.) Our experiences were a clear reminder that having our own vehicle would more than halve the cost of a snare sweep and allow us to do so much more work, reach more children, and help Simon to distribute his educational films. We're still hoping that we will be able to acquire one soon!
This team started out being staffed by Sheldrick Trust employees, but they
are finding it important to employ some locals to help, and we need to raise
funds to pay these salaries. Lori Bergamann, Amara's founder/director, was out
in the bush working with the team for a few days, and they are working in the
harshest of conditions, over vast areas, to protect the land. As Isaac, the
team leader said, a snare is like a land mine, it stays there until an animal
gets caught in it and dies, unless it's removed.
There are reasons for this snaring. Poverty is a problem in Kenya, and catching
some animals for sale or to eat is the easiest way for some folks to get by.
There are also large cartels working to process and ship this meat all over
Kenya and Tanzania. The bottom line problem is, however, that if left unhampered
these people will empty the parks and the country of wildlife entirely in a
very short time,and that would be devastating for everyone. Tourism is Kenya's
second largest source of revenue, and without these animals, no one will go
there. The wildlife there have adapted to live in these harsh environments,
and will continue to do so and thrive if left alone. This becomes a self-sustaining
resource for everyone. The land in and around Tsavo is arid scub, and not suitable
for cultivation or grazing. Tsetse flies abound and cattle are very susceptible
to trypanosoma.
Therefore, in conjunction with desnaring, it is essential to get into the local
communities and help to teach them about the consequences that their actions
will have on their environment. This seems quite obvious to those of us in the
West. Most of us have grown up with television, movies, and schools to teach
us about our environment - these people in rural Africa have none of those resources.
We need to help the children and the adults to see, in ways that they can understand
and will be receptive to, how they can save their own world.
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