GVI Kenya

Category: Community Conservation | Date: Feb 04 2009 | By: gvikenya

Greetings from our Tsavo West Community Develpment Project. I’ll be honest, there’s not really any work to report on today. Instead we treated our team to our tour of some of the areas best, but little known sights.

Our day started with a short trek up to the rim of the crater lake at Chala and then down to edge of the turquoise waters. This stunning lake which lays hidden in an old volcanic crater has to be one of Kenya’s better kept secrets. And Tanzania’s for that matter as it straddles the border.

Next stop was Taveta market, always bustling colourful and friendly. We stocked up on supplies and went on a mission to bring back a little something - the cheaper and tackier the better in our opinion - for our colleagues left holding the fort back at the coast.

Then on to the lesser known but equally beautiful Njoro springs, where the Kilimanjaro waters emerge from underground for a freezing, but exceptionally refreshing swim on a hot Taveta day!

We squeezed in a little work at Tunza Mazingira, a tiny local tree nursery that is one of the most beautiful peaceful spots I know of. Full of young trees and pretty plants arranged in neat rows under tall shade tees, it represents a little haven of green cool paradise by hot dusty Taveta. We bought neem trees, which we plant each time we visit Mahandakini. It helps improve their environment, offers a small grass-roots contribution to combating climate change and significantly the group here were sponsored through GVI Charitable Trust, thanks to Rachel our former base manager, to learn how to make soap from the neem tree which is renowned for its medicinal properties. This represents one form of alternative income for these ex-poachers.

Finally, we ended our day with a cold beer at Ziwani Voyager tented camp sat by a pool of hippo, crocodile and wonderful bird life, with impala and waterbuck at the water’s edge. Zebra on the drive back to Mahandakini would have been the perfect end… Except that we were treated to an exquisite yellow sunset behind Kilimanjaro’s lower slopes.

In case you hadn’t noticed, I love it out here!

Tags: lake chala, neem tree, njoro springs, soap making, taveta, tree nursery

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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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