Born Free

Category: Born Free, Born Free Kenya | Date: Dec 13 2008 | By: bornfree

I’ve just come back from a place called Ilmarba where we’ve been working in this great little school called Olmoti. It’s next to Amboseli National Park. I’ve told you this before, I think, but anyway, when we started work there in 2004, there were about 70 children in the school. And yet, we found many others out herding goats or fetching water.  For Born Free, this wasn’t great.  Because we’re educating the community about wildlife conservation, when children don’t go to school, it’s harder for them to get the message.
 
So we pledged to help build up the school infrastructure and lobby the government to get more teachers on condition that the community brought more children to school.  The community were delighted.
 
We started small, first renovating the existing classrooms and an old dorm that was falling down. The community said that if the school could be turned in to a boarding one, with a place for the children to sleep, then more could attend classes.  By January 2006 the number of kids in school doubled and continued to go up throughout that year.
 
We introduced a group of sponsors interested in supporting the community, through what Born Free calls the ‘Global Friends Programme’.  We raised the money we needed to put in a second dorm so that both boys and girls could sleep in school. Also because the number of kids was increasing practically everyday, we built more classrooms. At the same time, the Government, through the District Education’s Office provided more teachers to cope with the increase in enrolment. There was a lot of progress in 2007.
 
Now there are 282 children enrolled at the school – with about 180 using the boarding facilities! There are 4 new classrooms and a brand new dorm and in total, the school has 8 classrooms and 2 dorms. Which is exactly what they wanted. 
 
You should have seen the faces of the little children when we drove in there last week accompanied by the people who had sponsored all the new developments!  I hope the pics I took of my colleague Manoa and the children, show the joy we saw.

Alice

Tags: Born Free, education, Kenya, school

No responses yet

Category: Born Free, Born Free Kenya | Date: Aug 31 2008 | By: bornfree

My name is David Manoa, and I am a field project co-ordinator with Born Free in Kenya.  I’m currently based in Olmoti Primary School just outside Amboseli National Park where we’re building 4 new classrooms and a boys dorm to add to the kitchen, hall and girls dorm that we completed in 2006. 
 
For the first time in history, Ol moti primary school community organized an end of term closing ceremony. Parents and guardians as far as Oloitokitok (about 80 km away) and Kimana (about 50 km away), were all in attendance. Some ‘privileged’ parents arrived in style on their motorbikes while others simply walked to the school from the near by manyattas.

About 60 parents/guardians and 250 children convened in the schools airy multipurpose hall that was built by BFF with the help of Martin Clunes funds. After introductions, came the prize giving sessions where students in position one, two and three were honoured by heavy applaud. It was encouraging to see girls competing fairly well with the boys. The big shock to many was in class three, with all the top three positions being scooped by girls.

Toward, the end of the celebrations, the master of ceremony (the head master) invited various parent representatives, school chairman and myself to talk to the gathering. I must say, I was really impressed with the whole ceremony set up. The speeches were brief and to the point. The speakers from the community encouraged the children to work hard and reminded parents to help the children to realize their dreams. A renowned parent representative said, ‘the greatest prize one can give their children is education’. Some parents even vowed to campaign against the outdated cultural practices such as Female Circumcision or FGM as it is now more commonly known, which undermines the education and general development of the masaai communities. And in their closing remarks, the headmaster and the school chairman thanked BFF for their continued support to uplift the lives of the Ol moti community and promised to take care of the provided facilities.

All these happenings are a notch high, contrary to what I used to see in the past years. I believe there is light at the end of the tunnel and I can’t wait to witness yet another purposeful event!

Manoa David

Tags: Born Free, Born Free Kenya, community, Ol Moti, school

No responses yet

Category: Born Free Kenya | Date: Aug 18 2008 | By: bornfree

Hello readers of Wildlife Direct’s Born Free blog,

My name is Alice Owen, and I am the East African Regional Representative for Born Free Foundation, managing projects across East Africa as well as the Born Free Kenya office.

There are many aspects to Born Free’s work in Kenya, our small team of seven works from an office in Nairobi. Wildlife protection is crucial and we support the removal of animal snares through partner organisations such as the Bill Woodley Mount Kenya Trust and Youth for Conservation. For this work the fleet of vehicles generously donated by Land Rover is invaluable. 

One of the biggest challenges to conservation of wildlife and habitat in Africa is poor communities living inside or adjacent to wildlife areas.  But without the support of these communities, safeguarding wildlife becomes impossible.  That’s the paradox of conservation in developing countries and why Born Free in Kenya has established a programme that works directly with these communities.  We call it “Global Friends”.

 
Let’s start in Amboseli.  Born Free has supported elephant research and conservation here for many years.  But adjacent to Amboseli National Park lies the Olmoti community.  This is a predominantly Maasai region.  Maasai are pastoralists and move their herds of cattle, goats and donkeys seasonally to find grazing and water.  With expanding populations they have less and less land every year and are forced to become more sedentary.  They are also keener on getting their children educated now, to open up new opportunities in salaried jobs.  It is estimated that only 1 in 10 Maasai is literate. Responding to the growing population, the increasing permanence of settlements and the interest in education, Global Friends decided to focus on supporting education within this community.
 
Two years ago, we found a tiny school at Olmoti with only 74 children and 3 teachers. But there were numerous additional children at home doing chores such as fetching water, herding goats or taking care of siblings.  We wanted to get these children to school too.  This took a year of negotiation with local leaders and parents and we eventually brokered an agreement that if we built a boarding school, the children would attend.  The boarding facility was important, as in a remote area with wildlife about and no public transport, some children can’t get to school as day pupils for fear of encountering elephants and lion along the way. 

By the beginning of 2007 a girls’ dorm was completed and when the school opened that term we started to see the enrolment going up.  By the end of March there were 120 children.  It was like a dream - every day there was a new enrolment or two.  Children simply starting streaming in, some with permission from their parents and some without.  There have been cases where children herding livestock, having seen their friends start to enjoy school, simply ran off and left their goats in the bush.

Now there are over 240 children attending Olmoti and half of them are full-time boarders, 60 boys and 50 girls.  With that encouraging result we sought further support to raise money for a boys’ dorm and more classrooms.  In April 2008, we started the construction of 4 new classrooms and a boys’ dorm thanks to Born Free supporters in the UK, Jack Froggatt and Laurence Bloom.  We’re in the final stages of construction now and will be having an opening ceremony in November 2008!

The joy of working with rural communities is when you see the faces of the children.  It’s just the best thing in the world.  I have two children of my own who are more privileged than the children of Olmoti, but if they all get an education, the future may hold equal opportunities for them all. Alice Owen

Tags: Born Free Kenya, community, Kenya, Ol Moti, school

3 responses so far