The Hon. Noah Wekesa visits Mida Creek and the Hanging Walkway!

Last saturday Dr Noah Wekesa, Minister for Forestry and Wildlife and MP for Kwanza visited the Mida creek and the hanging walkway. Tony Kasungu and Tsofa Mweni arrived bright and early at 8am to greet the MP but due to commitments he did not arrive until after 12pm! However, afer his arrival they galantly explained about the work of the Assets programme and how it benefits Mida Creek, the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest and the surrounding communities.

The Hon. Noah Wekesa was guided around the Mangrove forest by Arafa, one of our guides at Mida Creek  He then walked on part of the hanging walkway before he had to move on due to other commitments. He was very impressed with the Assets programme and the eco-tourism site at Mida creek!

What are your “Indicators” of impact?

This is a question everyone who applies for funding from any donor has to answer. Well, 100% of the answers given are hypothetical or only apparent and therefore a big test for the project designer who tries to prove them true and valid. For conservation projects, it is even further complicated by the slow realization of results and the costs attached to proper evaluation processes. Nevertheless conservation work can be unbelievably rewarding as one sees the signs of impact being made. For ASSETS, this is one of the many happy moments! Saturday the 9^th of August was a memorable day for ASSETS. This time not on my iron horse so don't ask how many times I fell off. Together with 3 members of the ASSETS committee we headed for Shanzu Teachers Training College. Guess for what? It was a graduation ceremony for one of the very first ASSETS beneficiaries. Leah Mwamure was recruited to the ASSETS project in 2002. She went to Bogamachuko primary school, proceeded to Vitengeni Baptist for her high school education. She graduated from high school in the 2005 and joined Shanzu Teachers Training College in 2006 for Primary Teacher 1 Training.

Leah is such a clever girl! Read this; during her time in the ASSETS project she was given 50 casuarina seedlings to plant and care for at her home. Her hard work saw over 90% of her seedlings surviving to maturity. After 4 years of rearing the trees, Leah sold some of them to raise part of her brother's secondary school fees as well as her 1st year college fees. Now, for years, we have dwelt on the objective "to alleviate the pressure on the community to exploit the forest'' this has at last come true.What an encouragement! not only to her parents but also to the ASSETS project.

We are so proud of her thus we could not afford to miss her big day. With the ASSETS committee, her mum, her elder sister and a young brother not mentioning friends and other close relatives, Leah felt part of a big community. Leah was very happy to see us. "You have made me warm and God bless you all", were Leah's comments as we closed the gates behind us.

Courtesy call

Today I had a great meeting with the new District Forest Officer (DFO), Malindi District. I have severally tried to meet with him to pick on his advise regarding community participation in conservation as regards the new forest act. At last I have managed to do so today! As he courteously ushered me into his office I was greeted by the very familier set up I have known for over 3 years with only one change, the officer on the chair.

After a lengthy explanation of how ASSETS has progressed over the last 6 years, it was evident that the DFO had had very little information about the programme. Armed with past reports, newletters, minutes of previous meetings and letters of authorisation from the Director of Kenya Forest Service, I had the pleasure of bringing him to par with the opearations. It however turned out that according to the new forest act, several adjustments might need to be made. This will only take place after proper policies are constituted by the Kenya Forest Service.

This meeting will be followed up with another visit by the comittee of ASSETS beneficiaries to chat a way forward for revenue collection from the Arabuko Tree Platform. We hope and pray that the relevant policies will be put in place sooner!

GIFT for the ASSETS graduates!

After many year of head scratching trying to avoid the question "what next after the student's graduate from secondary school", at last there seems to be some light at the end of the tunnel. ASSETS is now linked to a UK charity, Gift International which seeks to finance post secondary education.

Grassroots Initiative Funding and Training (GIFT International) is run by very experienced environmental education teachers attached to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) in the UK. This charity seeks to facilitate education and training of communities for the purpose of environmental conservation.

Thus it has been another day on the motor bike though this time not paying bursaries. I have been busy searching for the ASSETS graduates who qualify to join University and potential beneficiaries to this new initiative. From our initial assesement, we have identified 10 graduates who qualify for this assistance. Interviews are scheduled for the next week to pick on the best four. Out of these, two are girls, and the most encouraging thing is, they are looking forward to a good future. One of the graduates I met had this to say. 'Through the great assistance offered to me by the ASSETS project, I was able to complete my high school and sincerely speaking ASSETS project has been the backbone of my success'.

Bats

Volunteering; a lifestyle that blew my mind!

My name is Carol Muthoni and I work for A Rocha Kenya as an administrator. Around two and a half years ago, being a "city gal" brought up and living in Nairobi, I had never taken time to think much about the environment. I would go to parks with friends on picnics and also visit Nairobi Nature trail where they have caged some wild animals and walk around, see them and it was cool and that was it. It was nice to be out of the hustle and bustle of the city! But how on earth did they manage to keep the place so amazingly beautiful with variety of trees, flowers, birds, butterflies, animals, fresh air and all?

In December 2005, a friend of mine requested me to accompany his nieces on a trip to a small touristy village - Watamu at the coast. I was between jobs then and so I thought it was a good idea, so I jumped to the opportunity. I had never been to the Coast Province before. In Watamu, we had been booked to stay at Mwamba field study centre for one night. I met this guy who introduced himself as Stanley, and he showed us around and into our rooms. Later after my first swim in the sea, I had a chat with him and he told me all about A Rocha and ASSETS. It is after talking to him and seeing their efforts and commitment to care for the environment that I realized what a beautiful place the world would be if all utilized our resources responsibly. I realized that as an organization, A Rocha was putting a lot of efforts in keeping the world a beautiful place to live in, both for humans and other creation. I was so impressed and wanted to help. I straight away decided to help with administration of the ASSETS Programme without realizing I wasn't going to work or live in Nairobi any more after all. After volunteering for nearly 7 months, I was offered employment as A Rocha Kenya administrator.

I have come to love life outside the city so much though there are times I miss the city life, but not enough to wish to go back. A Rocha opened my eyes and I was able to see that there was something I could do in a small way that could save the world. Now! The guy I first talked to in my first trip ever to the Kenyan coast, the first of that tribe (Giriama) I ever spoke to in my life, the one who introduced me to the wild, my boss and my best friend apparently became the love of my life! We are getting married this year in October and that means I belong to the Kenyan Coast and to the wild now and forever! His name is Stanley Baya, the ASSETS Coordinator.

A very big “Asante SANA”!

We would really like to thank very much indeed the Giraffe Centre in Lang'ata, Nairobi, for the very generous donation of Ksh 100,000 (c.$1,600) which has come at a particularly timely point. Ksh 60,000 of the donation will go direct to pay bursaries for children in Secondary school since this year our income from the eco-tourism facilities has been pretty poor given the troubles we had earlier in the year in Kenya which has chased off a lot of tourists.

The balance will go towards costs of a holiday "eco-camp" for 30 of the beneficiaries in August where they come and stay at the A Rocha Kenya field study centre in Watamu for 3 days, located right on the beach. Over the three days they are given a lot of input of exciting and stimulating environmental education particularly about Arabuko-Sokoke Forest and Mida Creek, with games, videos, talks, excursions (e.g. snorkelling in the Marine Park and to the Mida board walk) and for the two years we've done it so far they've really enjoyed it and learnt a lot. Many of the kids, even though they live only 15-20kms from the sea, have never actually seen it, so for them to have the chance to even go snorkelling blows them away!! So it's really good to be able to do this for them and this donation will really help make it a great experience - thank you, the Giraffe Centre!

Maximizing on Low Tourist Season!

Everything is blamed on the post election violence! For employees in the hotel industry, it is a very popular reason why they cannot repay their debts while their managers have found it easy to lay off half their staff to save on wages overhead in the name of redundancy. Head teachers in private schools have fallen victims of the same whilst children have accumulated enormous fees balances; reason, post election violence has ruined tourism in Kenya. Whilst all this is perfectly true and well worthy knowing, we should also note that it is June, the poorest Month in tourism. At the Mida bird hide, this is usually the time when we can receive one visitor in a whole week. At the Gede ruins, they hardly get tourists anyway and to them this is perfectly normal for the Month of June.

Renovation of the Mida Bird hide

While this is happening, we have since mid-May closed the Mida bird hide for some major renovations. A team of five has been working tirelessly on the facility and is now almost done. The fundi, Kadenge, "the bomb" promises it will be fully functional in two weeks.

An Urgent Matter

You might have been wondering why there has not been news. I have had to put work aside for a week to attend to some critical, urgent personal matter, in fact to pay dowry for my wife to be on the 11th of October. You never know what to expect in this and therefore leaving very little room to prepare ending up very supprised by what it turns out to be. Caro (Caroline) my fiance comes from the Kamba tribe so we travelled about 800 km north to Tala where she comes from, a beautiful country side about 60 km from Nairobi. My mother was very supprised to learn that coffee is from berries and not leaves of the coffee plant. Having spent all her time down at the coast, she was indeed thrilled by the long journey and the sudden very different set-up inland.

Among the things required as dowry are 42 live goats, one bull and loads of honey. Most interesting, I dont't do alot of slaughtering at home but here, I have had to slaughter a goat as a symbol of accepting Caro. This went very well and the meat was delicous. After all the feasting we were alowed to negotiate on the dowry and give a date for when we shall present this price. 6th of September was agreed at in the end; barely one month before the wedding.

I am looking forward to the 12 hrs drive tomorrow night going back to work!

"We are participating in WildlifeDirect's business strategy. Please help us by taking this user survey, thank you"

Volunteering inspired me!

My names are Tony Kanundu alias Bats; I work for ASSETS  as a Community Conservation Officer.  I grew up at Gede 500m from the edge of the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest. I am named Kanundu after my grandfather who was really a character of his kind. Locally, the name has two meanings. In Swahili language, Kanundu is a small hump of any animal and in Giriama, my first language, Kanundu is a bat; the flying mammal. Guess which character I am! My grandfathers’ characters resembled those of a bat but he could neither fly nor was he nocturnal. He was known to be tricky and a strategist and he could do things many people didn’t believe. He could disperse a crowd helter-skelter with his own intention, the same way Drogba can cut through a solid defense call it of any soccer team. When I was taught about mammals in high school, I was very amazed to learn the real character of the real flying mammal. As my grandpa could do, a bat which is nocturnal moves in a very marvelous way, without eyes it uses echo-location. As it flies lazily, it sends rays ahead and if there are any obstacles, the rays are reflected back to it and the Bat changes its route and it is able to enjoy its world in the night.  As I grew at age 14 I joined a local football club, Clarkes Weaver which was supported by Kenya Wildlife Service, Gede Forest station. The playing field was right in the forest and this was an opportunity to see wild animals. Apart from playing football I was voluntarily involved in small forest conservation activities. During and after high school I was very active member of the football club and later through my local church I joined A Rocha Kenya as a volunteer in the ASSETS programme. After 14 months volunteering, I had significant know how on the environment and the community around and the need for its involvement in conservation of the natural resources. This was a good time for me to move on. I stopped volunteering and joined Kenya Wildlife Service Training Institute where I studied Environmental Management for 2 years. Early January 2007, a few weeks before I graduated, I was called up by the ASSETS Co-ordinator to take up this job in the Community project. Ever since, I am enjoying working with the communities for the environment from the environment.

A Divine Intervention

Today was a day of it's own kind. After a great feasting last evening, saying goodbye to the A Rocha International Managing Director who has been with us for just under a week, half the team arrived late this morning. 9.00 a.m. was the appointed time for us to leave for Mida primary school where we were meeting the parents and students benefiting from the ASSETS bursary fund but it wasn't until 9.30 a.m that we managed to push start the truck whose battery is broken. We had to repeat this exercise twice; 1st when we stopped to fuel the trukc and again when it stalled just a kilometer from the gas station.At last, Tsofa and Tony had to hitch-hike a lift to get to the meeting before the parents gave up waiting and leave. 11.15 a.m is when the meeting started, with 14 students and 21 parents attending.

These meetings are held during every school holiday to link the bursaries received to the conservation of Arabuko-Sokoke Forest and Mida Creek. After a great awareness meeting with tons of coments from the participants, we were again faced with the task of starting the vehicle. This time we had promised to give a lift to some of the parents going to Chipande, 7 km away. (Now this is the most ridiculaous thing) "this vehicle must respect people from Chipande" an old man utters amidst the crowd. "It has to start without any problem." All the other parents laugh. "Ok, amen to your words old man" says Jonathan as he jumps into the truck, turns on the engine and it starts straight away. Goodness, what a mirracle! we are wondering whether we should pick the old man up tomorrow when we go to Nyari for the next meeting just in case the truck refuses to behave.