KIDS FOR CONSERVATION

Children are the future guardians of our planet. Kenya’s kids will one day be entrusted with the protection and preservation of the country’s wilderness areas and its wondrous wildlife. In a mission try and nurture their love for nature, The Safari Collection is involved in a variety of projects that aim to equip young Kenyans with a greater understanding of wildlife and the importance of conservation. This will hopefully give them the motivation and skills needed to act as conservation advocates in the future.

We are proud to have 18 scholars at primary and secondary schools around Kenya and to also support the children living at the Mary Immaculate Shelter of Love near Solio Lodge. We recently took 38 children, (all of our scholars and the children from the orphanage) on a three-day wildlife education retreat to teach them about the principles of conservation and environmentalism. Hopefully this inspired them on their journeys to become Kenya’s future conservation heroes.

We spent two nights at the wildlife education centre, eating meals together, going on game drives and the kids took part in active and informative lessons from their teachers. The game drives were particularly exciting for everyone, as almost none of the students had been on a safari before and it was their first time seeing Kenya’s incredible, world famous wildlife up close.

Another one of the activities was for the students to create plays focused on environmental education with topics such as littering, human wildlife conflict and water conservation. The students were very excited to perform for one another and were divided into small groups of varying ages and backgrounds. They discussed very real environmental issues, Kenyan daily life and came up with entertaining performances that we discussed as a group.

We hope that through education and exposure to the wild landscapes of Kenya, there will be a passion ignited in each of the children to want to protect their environment and it’s wildlife. This was an extremely memorable trip and we plan to make this a regular annual occurrence. The kids were delighted to hear this!

If you would like any more information on our work with the Mary Immaculate Shelter of Love or you would like to sponsor a student from the Samburu community so they can attend a school, please contact our Community and Conservation Manager using  sustainability@thesafaricollection.com.