GVI Kenya

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jun 05 2009 | By: gvikenya

We recently returned to Mahandakini, a village located in the southern part of Kenya close to the border with Tanzania. The village has a population of around 2,000 people, many of whom having given up poaching in nearby Tsavo West National Park and have been seeking to engage in sustainable income generating activities.  GVI’s role is to assist the community with capacity building to support alternative livelihoods. During our week long trip to Mahandakini we continued where we left off last time, developing a Food Security Programme for the community and cotton processing industry that Mahandakini is endeavoring to establish.

Throughout the week at Mahandakini, we worked in two groups; the first focused on developing the Food Security Programme, whilst the second spent time assisting with the development of a cottage cotton industry in Mahandakini.  as part of the Cotton Processing group we worked through problem solving with the community, providing training on using natural dyes and assisting with financial management.  The primary obstacle facing the cotton processing industry in Mahanadakini is the lack of funds for the processing and ginning machines necessary to undertake large scale cotton processing.  Over the week, we managed to initiate a plan for the community to develop the cotton industry by selling the cotton they are already growing, and buying cotton material which can be dyed and manufactured into value-added products. In this way the community will be able to start generating income immediately, some of which can be used to save up for the cotton processing equipment required for spinning and weaving. 

Our week wasn’t all about cotton though; we took time to visit some of the amazing sights in the local area.  We visited caves which were used by British soldiers who were fighting in Kenya during World War 2 and are now home to thousands of bats, went swimming at beautiful Njoro Spings the source of which is melt water from Mt. Kilimanjaro, and visited Ziwani Voyager Ranch, a great opportunity to see some local wildlife including elephants, hippopotamus, zebra, antelopes and a vast array of birdlife. Finally the week culminated with a wonderful traditional dinner prepared by some of the women from the ex-poachers group; the community invited us to share a meal with them as a sign of their appreciation for the work we had achieved together!

Tags: alternative livelihoods, capacity building, cotton, food security, Mahandakini, sustainable development, tsavo west national park

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Category: Community Conservation, Environmental Education | Date: Feb 03 2009 | By: gvikenya

Welcome back to GVI Kenya on tour! So cotton, bats and Njukini Women’s Group, what do they have in common? The truth is not much except that they all featured in our work here at Mahandakini today. Oh, and so did Kilimanjaro, treating us to some truly awe-inspiring views!

Cotton was one of our main themes with the community group we are working with here in Mahandakini. The WSPA community group, Mahandakini Youth Network for Animal Rights and Welfare
Have identified value added cotton production as a route to alternative liveloods that could guard against their 32 members returning to wildlife poaching and the bush meat trade. Cotton was widely grown here when there was a ready government market, being a hardy reliable cash crop in the semi arid strip between Tsavo West and Tanzania. But when the market disappeared, many farmers sought alternatives such as maize that is easy to sell, but more prone to the often failing rains.

Under a government initiative to revive cotton production, Dishon, the community group chairman has received training on spinning and weaving raw cotton as well as fabric dyeing, and is able to transfer those skills to his group and the wider community. Being able to source, spin, weave and sell the products of cotton locally would offer a realistic sustainable opportunity to provide a ready market to farmers and employment to the community. Profits from the enterprise would then feed in to their food security plans. At its most basic, food security for the community here means buying maize at harvest time when the price is low, storing it and selling back to the community at the same price at tougher times of year when the market price puts it out of financial reach for many families. This is not a profit making enterprise but a genuine community support process ensuring their neighbours don’t go hungry when traders force up the price of basic food stuffs.

Our morning with the community group was spent exploring both these initiatives, the planning, organisation and costs as a precursor to developing a fully fledged proposal, that could source the necessary funding to get them started.

The afternoon took us to neighbouring Chumvini village, where we have visited the bat caves at the primary school. Such wondeful animals it is always a thrill to see them up close and personal. On our last visit however we were dismayed to see that the school children didn’t share our respect and affection for the bats. After seeing them take out a number of bats with sticks we vowed to return and try to change attitudes. So with the gracious cooperation of the teachers, we took standard 8 - all 70 children! - for an hour’s lesson of games and bat facts, pressing home the benefit of bats, not least their remarkable ability to reduce mosquito populations! The ‘bat moth’ game at the end was designed to illustrate the concept of echolocation with a blindfolded ‘bat’ calling out and listening for the replying ‘moth’ until the bat catches the moth. Not sure how well they understood echolocation but they certainly enjoyed getting out of the classroom!

Finally we ended the day at the next village, Njukini where the women’s group gave us a tour of their grain store, sharing valuable information to take back to Mahandakini for their food security plans. This admiral group of local women that have been working as a cooperative for over 30 years were welcoming, gracious and as inspiring as their Kilimanjaro back drop! We were welcomed back to see them on our next visit to Mahandakini and personally I can’t wait to share an hour or two with this collection of women (and men - gender equality is alive and kicking even in dusty rural Kenya!) rich in shared experience, wisdom and sense of community.

Tags: bats, community development, cotton production, Environmental Education, food security, Kilimanjaro, Mahandakini, tsavo west, world society for the protection of animals

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Category: Community Conservation | Date: Feb 02 2009 | By: gvikenya

Hello from Mahandakini!

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology I’m blogging this week without even needing my laptop! The only drawback is that I can’t show you the wonderful photos that we’re getting along the way but if you bear with me I’ll illustrate our little safari when I’m back in the office.

So where am I this week? Well 2 years ago we begun a collaboration with the World Society for the Protection of Animals on their project to tackle the bush meat trade of Tsavo West national park. Recognising that the poachers of villages such as Mahandakini, Kidong and Kassani, near the town of Taveta were only hunting wildlife because they struggled to make a living from farming, the focus of their work is to work with community groups of reformed poachers and the women that helped sell the meat of wild animals to find alternative livelihoods.

Although a long way from our coastal home, we recognised the potential to help change people’s lives and the future of Tsavo’s wildlife.

This week I have brought our team back to Mahandakini, a beautiful rural village that lies between Tsavo West and the Tanzanian border, quite literally in the shadow of Mt Kilimanjaro - yes we really are that close to what must be one of the continents most iconic images and in my mind one the world’s most stunning vistas.

Our long bumpy journey yesterday took us through Tsavo West national park, past elephants with young, ostrich and hartebeest and with the sun setting a brief view of Kili’s twin peaks.

This morning we were guided by our ex-poacher hosts through their shamba, or farms, to see how irrigation can make all the difference in the world to these communities. During this week we will be supporting them in their plans to bring food security to their community, sadly a very poignant topic in Kenya right now, as well as plans to turn locally grown cotton in to value-added finished products.

I’ll let you know how the week goes as often as I can check in… And as long as my phone battery lasts!

Bye for now…

Tags: bush meat trade, Kilimanjaro, Mahandakini, taveta, tsavo west national park, wiliflife' poachers

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