Environmental Education at Kahingoni Primary School

School visits for Environmental Education have picked up very well, and this time the staff and volunteers of A Rocha Kenya were in Kahingoni Primary School. As usual the pupils were excited. They assembled in one class where we had our lesson which later on led to a very lively discussion. The lesson touched on the importance of conserving the forest and the endangered animals like the Golden-rumped sengi (elephant shrew), whose habitat is the Arabuko Sokoke Forest.

Pupils anwering questions during the lesson

A Rocha Kenya also donated some tree seedlings to the Wildlife Club of Kenya members in that school. The tree seedlings were of the Bombax rhodognaphalon (East African Bombax) commonly known as 'msufi mwitu' in Swahili and Balanites wilsoniana commonly known as 'mkonga' in Giriama which is the local language here. The trees were planted after the lesson by the pupils.They promised to take care of them by putting a small fence around each of them and watering them.

Mapenzi, a pupil planting one of the tree seedlings

We hope to get more funds to continue sustaining our program which involves a lot of traveling. Our goal is to educate all the schools surrounding the forest on the importance of conserving it since it is an important biodiversity area.

Naomi Wanjiru Gichungu- Environmental Education intern

Environmental Education visit to Girimache Primary School

Due to the many staff changes in the last six months, the Environmental Education programme at A Rocha Kenya had stagnated for some time. We are glad it has been possible to revive it with a new program of school visits! The 7th of June marked our first visit to a primary school near the Arabuko Sokoke forest. The journey took us almost one and a half hours to Girimache Primary School where we found the students preparing to get in to the hall where we were meeting. On board was Nathaniel, one of the volunteers from France, Naomi, a student attached in the Environmental Education programme from Kenyatta University, and Stanley the Environmental Education officer at A Rocha Kenya.

The students were eager to hear what we had to teach them and surprisingly they loved it. They enjoyed answering questions and asked for clarification where they did not understand. It was really satisfying to see how the pupils were passionate about the environment. The students seemed to have had some environmental education as a component of their schooling already. We had a discussion on how each one of us contributes to the degradation of the environment, including the Arabuko Sokoke forest that neighbours the school. The days’ success was marked by the promise that the students will do their best in taking care of the environment, and they will be involved in educating other students and their parents on the importance of conserving the environment.

The first nine schools that will be visited for Environmental Education, including Girimache, are schools with ASSETS students enrolled. For students from this area, understanding why conservation of the environment is important is crucial to the preservation of the unique ecosystems of the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest, and only by educating the young will there be a change in the way the forest is used be achieved in the future.

Naomi Wanjiru Gichungu- Environmental Education intern

Environmental Education at Nyari Primary School

On June 10, 2011 we had another chance to teach the pupils surrounding Arabuko Sokoke forest about the importance of conserving the forest and their environment in general. This time it was in Nyari Primary School. The pupils were excited because we had earlier announced that they we were going to show a conservation film. When we entered the class where we were to make our presentations, they all stood up at once to say hello, which was amazing with such a large number of students!

Without wasting time we introduced the film. The film was produced in Swahili, and made to help encourage people to conserve their forests. The film was done in Tanzania by the Community Based Conservation Films. The pupils enjoyed the film all along and later on we asked questions on what they had learnt to summarise on our lesson.

The excitement of the pupils was a great motivation for us to continue with school visits. This time apart from Mr. Stanley and I (Naomi), we were joined by Lydia,  an ASSETS graduate who attended Nyari primary school. Lydia was interviewed previously on this blog, and is currently doing an internship with A Rocha Kenya. She is awaiting a sponsor so that she can attend university.

We were able to show a film at this school because a projector was generously donated to A Rocha Kenya last month by Ruth and Ron Rob, from Canada. It has been appreciated greatly, as we can now take many different kinds of educational media along when we go to do the presentations, and keep the students well engaged.

Naomi Wanjiru Gichungu, Environmental Education intern.

World Environment Day

World Environment Day (WED) is a day that stimulates awareness of the environment and is on the 5^th June. It was the day that United Nations Conference on the Human Environment began. It was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972. The first World Environment Day was on 1973. World Environment Day is hosted every year by different cities in various countries with a different theme each year.

This year being the UN international year of forests, the theme was no different. It emphasized the conservation of forests and urged nations to increase their forest cover. We at A Rocha Kenya participated in the celebrations in various ways. We spent the previous day doing lots of tree planting at the Mzizima primary school where we planted over 800 tree seedlings which we had donated together with the Kenya Forest Service.

(Kenya Forest Service watering a recently planted tree)

(Naomi, Env. Ed Intern, and Bimbo, ASSETS staff, planting a tree)

We then took a walk through the Mida Creek together with the guest of honour the Provincial Commissioner of Coast province and guests from NEMA. The creek helps the organisation to raise funds to support the education of students living around the Arabuko Sokoke forest through our ASSETS programme.

Later on we joined the celebrations with the local schools and community at Mida Primary school where we also planted some trees.

(Students from Mida school singing a song for the environment)

Naomi (Environmental Education intern with A Rocha Kenya at Mwamba Field Study Center)

An Incredible Combination

My name is Stanley Baya, working as the Co-ordinator of the Arabuko-Sokoke Schools and Eco-Tourism Scheme (ASSETS). I feel privileged to share with you my experience in working in community and conservation at Arabuko-Sokoke Forest and Mida Creek. Perhaps the best way to do this is to share with you what drives me to take up such a challenging task as you will realise community development is indeed not easy especially when you are from that community yourself (a prophet can not be accepted by his own people); I am not suggesting that I am a prophet, that's not the point, I only mean "familiarity breeds content"

I grew up at Gede village, one and half kilometers from Arabuko-Sokoke Forest but I knew very little about it until much later during my college days. Mida Creek was more familiar to me as I had a chance to learn how to fish from my cousins as a child.

My job as co-ordinator of an eco-scholarship fund would not have been as exiting without my High school experience when I had to stay out of school for a greater part of the school semester owing to the expense of school fees. One of my most exiting moments has always been when I received a bursary support from World Vision International which enabled me to complete my secondary school education. I later trained as a Primary school teacher and worked in a private school for two years until year 2001 when I joined A Rocha as the ASSETS Co-ordinator. <www.assets-kenya.org> It is while teaching in a private school where the children had more than what they needed that challenged me to think of the other children in public schools whose parents could hardly lay a meal on the table.

In ASSETS, I have realised an incredible combination of two of my greatest passions; helping needy children and environmental conservation. By the time these children graduate from secondary school, a sense of appreciation of the natural environment is often very evident. While others write to express their gratitude for the bursary support, some present themselves in person to do the same and tears are a common characteristic of their joy. This plus their parents commitment in caring for these internationally recognised habitats is indeed the encouragement to press on!