2016 SUSTAINABILITY HIGHLIGHTS

As we celebrate our Earth we would like to reflect on The Safari Collection’s commitment to to conservation by sharing our 2016 sustainability highlights with you.

CONSERVATION CAR

In 2016 our conservation car assisted with all our programmes around Kenya and has driven over 10,000 miles in aid of big cat conservation in the Masai Mara safari park area. The car assisted with the Mara rhino census in January and made vital interventions to call in vets to assist with big cats in trouble.

WOMAN’S EMPOWERMENT

In January we partnered with Kakenya’s Dream, a school outside the Masai Mara to assist with a programme of women’s empowerment, self defense and sexual health training to 260 local school girls.

HONI PRIMARY SCHOOL

Thanks to a very kind donation from Mr. Charlie Wickham we have begun completely rebuilding the Honi Primary School outside Solio Lodge. So far we have completed nine new classrooms and a new staff room and in 2017 we will be finishing the dining rooms, kitchens and permaculture gardens.

SCHOLARSHIPS

In 2016 three female students from the Sasaab community were sponsored to attend secondary boarding schools. Primary school in Kenya is free but further education requires fees and without these scholarships education would be out of reach for these talented young ladies. One mature student was sponsored to attend a teacher training college so he can go back into the Samburu community to help the next generations.

SCHOOL FOOD PROGRAMME

The Safari Collection provided over 50,000 school lunches to the children at two schools around Sasaab. This has been hugely important in what has been a difficult year of drought. Free lunches encourage parents to keep their children in school and good nutrition is the single most important factor to a child’s academic performance. In 2017 we will be expanding this programme to provide over 200,000 lunches.

SAFE SAMBURU

We have continued to partner with the amazing SAFE Samburu team to assist with their dramatic performances in the villages and market places conveying a message to reduce the prevalence of FGM and increasing awareness of HIV in the Samburu community.

EYE CLINIC

Our eye surgery mission in May changed the lives of 199 community members at Solio Lodge and Sasaab. A team of 10 medical professionals performed free cataract and trachoma surgeries over a two week period returning sight to those without and providing 1000s of others with eye testing, free glasses and medication to treat a variety of minor ailments.

DENTAL CLINIC 

In November we held a dental clinic for the communities around Solio Lodge and Sala’s Camp treating over 2000 patients during the course of two weeks. This was the 3^rd year in succession that we have partnered with UK charity SmileStar to assist these communities and now that our reputation has spread we are receiving more and more patients each year, some of whom have travelled huge distances to see the team.

CONSERVATION PARTNERS 

We have continued to partner with the Mara Cheetah Project (MCP) in the Masai Mara and the Grevy’s Zebra Trust (GZT) in Samburu, collaborating on a number of different projects and proposals. The Grevy’s Zebra Trust joined us for our eye clinic at Sasaab to talk to community members about the importance of grazing planning and the harmful effects of over grazing and the Mara Cheetah project joined our dental clinic in the Mara to show their cheetah conservation film in Masai language.

If you would like to find out more about The Safari Collection’s Community and Conservation projects please contact us using sustainability@thesafaricollection.com