COMMUNITY OUTREACH MONTHLY REPORT SEPTEMBER 2015 SUMMARY: During the month of September, the DSWT carried out 7 school field trips to both Tsavo East and Tsavo West National Parks, where 150 school children and 18 teachers were guided by the DSWT’s Community Outreach Officer in the Trust’s field trip bus. This action-packed school trip allows the children to get up close to wildlife, walk along nature trails and interact with KWS officers and employees during visits to the Park’s learning centres. The DSWT also visited two schools in September with the mobile film unit and screened two films adapted for Kenyan school children depicting the importance of wild places and protecting all wildlife. 77 custom built desks which are sustainably designed to be more durable, were also donated to a number of underprivileged schools during the month. The DSWT also carried out regular maintenance of the elephant-beehive fence line at Iviani village bordering Tsavo East National Park.
SEPTEMBER 2015 SCHOOL FIELD TRIPS
From August to September 2015 public education in Kenya was paralyzed by a nationwide teacher strike. The DSWT working together with the teachers still managed to carry out seven (7) fully sponsored field trips to either Tsavo West or East National Parks during this period. These field trips are an important approach in introducing wildlife conservation to school children as well as communicating the importance of protecting their environment and natural places. Many children living in communities bordering protected areas have not visited national parks before due to high visiting costs. Tsavo has been very dry in the last two months with many empty watering holes forcing wildlife to congregate in large numbers at the surviving watering sources, which has offered the children an opportunity to spot significant numbers of wildlife and a number of different species compared to other months.
SCHOOL TRIPS Itangi Primary (1)
DATE 1/8/2015
Itangi Primary (2)
9/8/2015
Mloweni Primary (1)
14/8/2015
Mloweni Primary (2)
15/8/2015
Kajire Primary
14/9/2015
Redeem Primary
22/9/2015
TOTAL
PARK VISITED Tsavo West National Park Tsavo West National Park Tsavo West National Park Tsavo West National Park Tsavo East National Park Tsavo West National Park
STUDENTS 25
TEACHERS 3
25
3
25
3
25
3
25
3
25
3
150
18
SEPTEMBER 2015 SCHOOL DONATIONS
The concentration levels of school children in class has been associated with their comfort in the classroom and their learning environment. In many schools bordering the park, children lack many essentials including school desks whereby the children are left with no option other than sitting on the floor or sharing poor desks with several other students during their studies. In August and September the DSWT donated seventy seven (77) long-lasting desks to including to Kithasyo Primary School, Mtito-Andei Primary School and Kivutini Primary School. These desks are made using metallic frames and wooden tops to minimize the use of timber and have a longer life compared to other designs.
School Mtito-Andei Primary Kivutini Primary Kithasyo Primary TOTAL
Date 03rd Sept.2015 03rd Sept.2015 28th Sept.2015
Desks 25 25 27 77
SEPTEMBER 2015 VIDEO SHOWS
The DSWT Community Outreach team hosted two video shows in Voi and Kibwezi this month showing environmental and conservation themed films teaching the audience about animals, plants, ecology, and the threats facing wildlife in Kenya such as poaching and habitat destruction. The videos are narrated in Swahili for a better understanding across the groups. The DSWT uses a film projector system with generator backup as many of the schools do not have electricity. Following the show the DSWT Community Officer in charge leads a Q&A session whereby the children can discuss further what they have seen and how each and every one of them can participate in protecting their environment.
SEPTEMBER 2015 BEEHIVE FENCES
The DSWT continues to work with farm owners, teaching them general beehive maintenance and working with them to collect data on elephant invasion as well as honey badger attacks. In August and September the team recorded the highest number of elephants attempting to cross into community farms. In areas where hives were already occupied with bees, elephant invasions were effectively deterred. The increase in the number invasions can be largely be related to the ongoing dry season in Tsavo as many elephants cross over to the community land to look for food and water. The number of honey badger attacks also increased which in many cases were deterred by the badger proof iron sheet fitted around the hives. As can be seen in the picture above, the farm owners can now produce vegetables with little concern for elephants trampling and eating their crops due to the success of the beehive fence-line.
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