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Inspiring results at Enkijape School
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Musa Seneiyo emerged top student in her class with 406 marks
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Musa Seneiyo writing a brief story about her experience with wildlife
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Marco da Cunha, an American intern at WildlifeDirect with Soila Sayialel, WildlifeDirect's Field Manager at Osiram 'boma' where he met with Maasai women.
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Children at Enkijape School riding up and down seesaws made by Marco, Vincent from WildlifeDirect and Tom from Big Life Foundation. We still need 30 more tyres and invite you to donate any of your used tyres for this project.
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After just two months of providing one meal per day for students we have witnessed a remarkable transformation in the Enkijape Primary School. Particularly moving is one story about a little girl, Musa Seneiyo who is only 11 years old. Musa emerged first in her class with 406 marks in mid term exams and she attributes her school improvement to the feeding program. She wrote about her experience since the school started getting the support.
Excerpt of Musa's writing about her experience with wildlife and school performance in the last two terms.
Since the project began, 750 children receive one meal of Insta Products Special food per day courtesy of Insta Products. The now energetic children have formed 3 new clubs; environment, agriculture and wildlife films. The environment club members have planted 100 trees in the school.
A cross section of students at Enkijape are fascinated by the new tablet as they learn how to use it for education
Our firm belief is that we are all made equal, but inequality in education and resources means that many people in Kenya may never achieve their potential. With food and access to the world’s best education we can help and that’s why we are promoting computers in schools. On June 8, we delivered 25 computer tablets to Enkijape Primary through a donation from the Chandaria Family Foundation. Each tablet is pre-loaded with the entire syllabus for the Kenya Primary Schools. Our Education and Outreach team led by Joy Omulupi were joined by staff from eKitabu who trained the teachers and students on use of the tablets.
Joy, Wilburn, Vincent, Peter and David join, join Enkijape Primary School students in a celebratory jump for joy after receiving tablets
Why is WildlifeDirect focusing on Enkijape Primary School? Because it is located in the heart of the Amboseli elephant country and we want these children to love wildlife because it brings opportunity. Even children with disability are using the new tablets. Please see a short video here.
Students from the environment club plant succulent flowers to beautify the school compound
We thank the Chandaria Family Foundation especially Dhiren and Sophie Chandaria who responded to our request.
WildlifeDirect creates opportunities for young people to join us in the office or field. This doesn’t just make our interns and volunteers better people, it gives them an opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to people and wildlife. This, we believe makes people happy. So, if you are interested in being happy and you want to join WildlifeDirect as an intern or to volunteer for specific events, please apply on volunteers@wildlifedirect.org
If you would like to support this exciting project, please contact Joy at WildlifeDirect, jo@wildlifedirect.org
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Dr. Paula Kahumbu named Honorary Warden
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Our CEO Dr. Paula Kahumbu has just been appointed to the position of Honorary Warden for a period of 3 years. Honorary wardens are community leaders and persons of good standing to support the Kenya Wildlife Service in protection of wildlife.
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National Geographic Explorers Festival
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East Africa Explorers at the event Dr. Paula Kahumbu, Jude Alberto Borges, Gabriel Ngale, Dr. Olivier Nsengimana, Grace Gobbo and Chloe Cippoletta who has led the National Geographic East Africa Fund since 2015.
Dr. Paula Kahumbu attended the National Geographic Explorers Festival 2017 week that was held in Washington DC. Every year the National Geographic brings explorers from around the globe together for a weeklong gathering to meet and find ways to collaborate on innovative projects that are making the world a better place.
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Tim the big tusker in Amboseli
WildlifeDirect through funding from Asen Foundation has made a donation of $20,000 to Big Life Foundation towards the costs of monitoring and protecting Tim one of Kenya’s biggest tusker. Last year in September, WildlifeDirect teamed up with Kenya Wildlife Service, Big Life Foundation, and Save the Elephants to collar Tim. The collar helps the authorities to monitor Tim and minimize crop-raiding incidences.
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Magestic elephants of Tsavo. Photo credits: Mark Deeble: markdeeble.wordpress.com
WildlifeDirect is proud to be a supporter of a new film, the Elephant Queen by award winning filmmakers, Mark Deeble and Victoria Stone. With their film team, Mark, Victoria and Etienne Oliff have spent more than 4 years in the Tsavo wilderness documenting the extraordinary story of an elephant matriarch and her family. The release of Elephant Queen is highly anticipated to be the next epic blockbuster.
During production Mark wrote a blog revealing the experience of living with elephants
"More than anything, I would like to take our guest out walking – armed only with our wits – in a wilderness that is still the kingdom of the elephants. There, they could feel, perhaps for the first time in their lives, just how insignificant humans can be. It might show them, that to be anthropocentric, is not the only way to view the world – and how to step outside the protective bubble we surround ourselves with, can make us feel so much more alive. They’d feel part of the natural world, not apart from it.
Above all else, I hope they would see that elephants are the rightful and dominant force in their ecosystem, and conclude that we have no right to take that away.
I’ll probably never get the chance to meet that dinner guest, or sit with them at a waterhole – our outlooks and our lives are thousands of miles apart. Very few of us will ever have the privilege of experiencing elephants in the wild, and that’s why we are making a film about them – to attempt to convey the wonder we feel, when in their presence. It can never be the same as experiencing them first hand, but, by making the film and telling their story, we hope to share our passion, convey the wonder, and perhaps inspire people enough to make them care – and answer for themselves, the question, “Elephants – why bother?” www.facebook.com/theelephantmovie Mark Deeble: markdeeble.wordpress.com
Mark and Victoria have been major champions of WildlifeDirect and provided their previous award winning films for broadcast in Kenya through our series NTV Wild with NTV and Kenya Wildlife Service. Mark spoke about film making in one of the first episodes of NTV Wild Talk.
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Name Them Save Them Campaign
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Portrait of Dr. Paula Kahumbu with Jabulani, the orphan elephant that inspired the shape of the new Amarula bottle.
Following the launch of the second phase of the #NameThemSaveThem Campaign, WildlifeDirect will be joining Amarula to celebrate this year’s World Elephant Day on July 12th. Watch our social media reports on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
Help us spread the word about the plight of elephants. By naming the remaining elephants, and sharing the challenge they face, we can raise global awareness of their reality.
To join the campaign please visit Amarula.com/trust
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Raising wildlife conservation awareness among travelers
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WildlifeDirect Communication Manager Trish Sewe hands over NTV Wild Talk DVDs and wildlife films from Alan Root to Philip Mbutu of Safarilink
WildlifeDirect is working with all partners to ensure that conservation messages reach far and wide. We partnered with the Kenya Wildlife Service and NTV Kenya last year, and launched two television series NTV Wild and NTV Wild Talk to bring wildlife into the homes of millions of Kenyans every week.
We also share these videos with school children through an outreach and education program and now you can watch them at the Safarilink passenger lounge at Wilson Airport in Nairobi. We are extremely grateful to Alan Root whose films we shared with Safarilink.
Safarilink have been staunch supporters of WildlifeDirect branding all their aircrafts with Hands Off Our Elephants stickers and adopting the no ivory on board policy. They have also provided subsidized airfare costs for our NTV Wild crew as well as free flight for one NTV Wild winner.
We also want to thank filmmakers Alan Root, Mark Deeble and Victoria Stone, Simon Trevor-African Environmental Film Foundation, National Geographic, BBC, the Disney Nature, among others whose generous donations of award winning films shot in Kenya has allowed us to make Kenyans fall in love with wildlife.
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Eyes in the Courtroom: Watching brief on Pangolin cases
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Pangolin from a farm in Northern Zimbabwe Photo credit: Ian Michler
WildlifeDirect has been watching brief on two cases where two people, both Chinese, were charged with possession of pangolin scales. On the first case, Huili Hong was arrested on 22nd June 2016 at JKIA with a bag of pangolin scales, 11 pendants and 3 beaded bangles of worked ivory. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to pay Ksh. 1,000,000 with 5 years imprisonment in case of default, which he has since paid and left the country. The second case, which is ongoing, is that of Liangzhi Zheng who was arrested on 10th June 2017 at JKIA with 0.2 kgs pangolin scales. In both cases, a sniffer dog detected the luggage with pangolin scales.
Kenya being one of the major exit points for illegal wildlife trade has been a popular hub for pangolin trafficking. With seizures amounting to almost 1500 kg, in 2016, Kenya has proven to be a suitable hub for trafficking yet again. Last year on two separate occasions, Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) canine unit security personnel seized 1000 kg of pangolin scales at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi. They were both unaccompanied consignments seized at KQ cargo area of JKIA.
On May 7 this year, another seizure was reported in Malaysia where 10 bags of pangolin scales weighing 304 kg that originated from Kinshasa, Congo transited through JKIA and Dubai and arriving in Malaysia on May 2.
Despite being the most trafficked animal in the world, very few people know or understand the important role of controlling pests that pangolins play in the ecosystem. It has been estimated that an adult pangolin can consume more than 70 million insects annually. Their constant burrowing habit also aids in the decomposition cycle and vegetation growth and their burrows are also occupied by many other species.
In Kenya, the penalty for possession of pangolin scales is a minimum of Kshs. 1,000,000 and/or 5 years imprisonment, which can be enhanced to Ksh. 20,000,000 and/or 20 years imprisonment.
Pangolins are one of Africa's least known species and is believed to be in critical danger of extinction due to trafficking in their products, especially scales, to China. We are committed to ensuring that this trafficking is brought to an end. Please support our work by making a donation here.
Find out more about pangolins here
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We would be hugely grateful if you are willing to make a contribution towards the exciting projects that we've shared with you in this newsletter. For more information about how to donate click here. Every penny received goes into ensuring justice for wildlife.
Sincerely,
Dr. Paula Kahumbu
CEO, WildlifeDirect
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