COMMUNITY OUTREACH MONTHLY REPORT MAY 2016 SUMMARY: Since establishment the DSWT has been working with remote and marginalised communities through conservation programs aimed at sharing information and giving support to such communities living in wildlife dispersal areas, especially throughout the Tsavo Conservation Area. The Trust’s programs work mostly with schools and their local communities through fully sponsored school field trips to one of Tsavo’s National Parks, as well as wildlife film shows and environmental conservation lectures. In May 2016 the DSWT carried out six school trips, three wildlife film shows and two conservation lectures in Maktau, which lies in the southern region of the Tsavo Conservation Area. The DSWT also held meetings with the Maktau area Chief and youth leaders to promote goodwill between the community and the DSWT in turn promoting the importance of wildlife and habitat conservation.
MAY 2016 SCHOOL FIELD TRIPS
In May 2016, the DSWT started using a newly revised trip booklet giving the school children more information about wildlife diversity in the Tsavo region whilst highlighting wildlife offences and penalties as stipulated in the Wildlife Management Act of 2013. In total six groups of 150 school children accompanied by 18 of their teachers were taken on a fully sponsored field trip and game drive to Tsavo East National Park during May. The field trip began early in the morning at the KWS Tsavo East Education Centre before the school bus then travelled on to the Kanderi Swamp area, then on to Aruba Dam where they had the chance to watch wild elephants and spot a variety of other wildlife species. The school children were then taken for a special visit to see the DSWT’s Voi orphan elephants and given the opportunity to interact with the elephants who are in the process of being rehabilitated back into the wild. At the stockades, the Head Keeper informed the children of the stories behind each orphaned elephant under their care, highlighting the terrible effects of poaching on elephants. From the Voi stockades, the children were then taken for a game drive along the water pipeline though Elima water hole and lastly onto the beautiful Mudanda Rock where they were able to watch more animals and an array of birdlife. SCHOOL TRIPS G. Mosi Primary School1 G. Mosi Primary School2 Maktau Primary-1 Maktau Primary-2 Msorongo Primary-1 Msorongo Primary-2 TOTAL
DATE Tsavo East NP
PARK VISITED 18th May 2016
STUDENTS 25
TEACHERS 3
Tsavo East NP
21st May, 2016
25
3
Tsavo East NP Tsavo East NP Tsavo East NP Tsavo East NP
24th May, 2016 26th May, 2016 28th May, 2016 30th May, 2016
25 25 25 25 150
3 3 3 3 18
MAY 2016 WILDLIFE FILM SHOWS
The DSWT Community Outreach team carried out three wildlife film shows in three schools reaching out to over 900 school children and their teachers. The team showed ‘The Elephants of Tsavo’ a documentary detailing the status of elephants in Tsavo East National Park from times of the late David Sheldrick who was the Senior Warden during the Parks early days, to more recent times.
Name of School
Date of Film Show
G. Mosi Primary School Maktau Primary School Msorongo Primary School
20th May, 2016 25th May, 2016 27th May, 2016
TOTAL
No. of Audience 324 271 310
905
The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is reliant on your kind support in order to keep our community outreach projects running. For more information about these projects please visit www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.com/community or email info@dswt.org