In April 2024, Sunworld Safaris sponsored 36 participants (26 children and 10 caregivers) from Korogocho slums in Nairobi to have a safari to LUMO Community Wildlife Conservancy. They were accommodated for two nights at Cheetah Tented Camp and Leopard Lair Cottages. The children got the opportunity to have the guest type of experience for accommodation and meals. In addition to game drives, the group participated in tree planting activities, planting over 50 trees, and later in the evening watching a bush cinema about the life of a lion.
We facilitated a game drive for Godoma Primary School. An award for being the most committed school and lead for the Plastics for Books project. They later had a tour of the lodge, with some lunch snacks. From this, the students understood the relation between wildlife conservation, tourism, and community development benefits.
Also, we organized game drives for Lorubae Primary School and Waso Muslim in Samburu region to Samburu National Reserve to learn about wildlife. They later had lunch at Soroi Larsens Camp, where they learned about the relationship between tourism and wildlife and the community’s benefits from supporting conservation
We had a wildlife cinema-watching session for Maktau and Mwashuma Schools, where 250 pupils and teachers were present.
The cinemas were held at the individual schools, and they watched the jungle lives of different wildcats, their eating habits, and their survival tactics. After that, the pupils and the teacher were involved in an interactive session by the LUMO ranger on lessons they learned. Also, during the period we organized a bush cinema for the LUMO Youth Forum
To reduce the walking distance that young children between 4 and 8 years living near LUMO Community Wildlife Conservancy have to walk to obtain education, we support an upcoming school in their village with food and stationery supplies and payment of a teacher and a cook. In Mayy, we supplied the school with their termly food ratio. This includes rice, beans, porridge flour, sugar, cooking oil, and salt. This will come a long way in ensuring that students have nutritious food to aid their growth as they learn.
The “Plastics for Books” project continues gaining momentum as time passes. During this period, we collected 434kgs of plastics that we took for recycling. We collected 270kgs of plastics from 9 schools from the LUMO school programme and received 37 textbooks.
In addition, CWC made an additional 7 cages, to be distributed to primary and secondary schools in the Archers Post region to aid in their plastics collection. We distributed wire mesh cages for Lorubae Primary School and Waso Muslim, for the “Plastic for Books” Project. Also, we distributed textbooks for the schools brought from the plastic proceeds collected during the Archers Post town clean-up.
Also, Exotica FC and Transform Samburu Affirmative Project (TSAP), youth groups in Samburu collected 164 Kg of plastics all collected within Archer’s post town. TSAP collected the plastics from a clean-up they did at Archers Post and put their mesh cage at one of the points in town. At the same time, Exotica FC collected plastics from within the town in areas near their training field.
Five of our students, 1 from CIT and 4 from Samburu Vocational and Training College started their industrial attachment at Soroi collection lodges, including Soroi Lions Buff- LUMO and Soroi Luxury Migration Camp – Mara.
Also, the students at Coast Institute of Technology (the institute has been recently changed to Taita Taveta National Polytechnic), started their second year of study. These are those doing level 4 and level 5 in their courses including tour and travel products management, culinary arts, and food and beverage. We visited the students and their tutors to discuss their past academic results, especially in the areas that need improvement.
On April 19, Larsens Camp staff, led by the Camp Manager, attended a clean-up activity at Archers Post town organized by Transform Samburu Affirmative Project (TSAP). They then collected plastics that were ferried to Nairobi by CWC for recycling. The proceeds from the plastics will then be used to buy supporting supplies for the group. This is a continuation of the initiative started by the CWC clean-up activity at Archers Post to make the town clean. During this period, the Exotica FC and Transform Samburu Affirmative Project received their plastics cages to put in plastics after collection. In addition, the TSAP received a flexible banner, as a reward bought from the proceeds of plastics collected during the clean-up activity done at archers post on 10th February, 2024.
During this period, we have had volunteers who have joined to support CWC Activities. The volunteers engage in different projects including the ‘Plastics for Books’ project- collecting plastics from schools, compiling book requests distributing books; facilitating ICT lessons at Mlughi Digital Lab – reaching over 200 pupils from different schools; joining Kenya Wildlife Service rangers for patrols and desnaring; engaging in the Tumaini Jewelry project, Teaching Ukulele lessons, and engaging in other activities at the lodge.
We spent the ‘tree growing day’ on 10th May 2024, at LUMO Community Wildlife Conservancy with Tourism and Wildlife Cabinet Secretary Dr. Alfred Mutua. This was in remembrance of all the Kenyans who lost their lives during recent floods. We managed to plant 6000 trees all in the conservancy area. Among other dignitaries were the Taita Taveta County Governor, Deputy Governor, the Women Representative, Mwatate MP, Deputy County commissioner, the assistant County commissioner, and other county leaders. Community members and other stakeholders joined in making the activity successful.
On June 5th, we joined the LUMO Youth Forum to celebrate World Environment Day 2024 at LUMO Community Wildlife Conservancy. With the theme “Land restoration, desertification, and drought resilience”, we were involved in a discussion about invasive species and weeds and their effects on ecosystems, by experts from the Wildlife Research and Training Institute.
We later proceeded to an area in the conservancy to physically cut down the weed – Ipomoea hildebrandtii, as a mechanical way of controlling weeds. This will ensure grass re-growth, ensuring a more stable ecosystem that provides pasture to wild animals
CWC facilitates interactions between guests at Soroi Collection with the projects we are doing. This is because part of the fees paid by every guest staying at any of the Soroi Lodges fund CWC projects. During the month, some guests visited Latika Primary, a school we have supported for the last three years. They carried clothes and toys distributed among the kids and the parents.
We joined the Open Defecation Free Celebrations of Ng’ombenyi, Runda, and Madangonyi villages, some of the communities of LUMO Conservancy, and part of the LUMO community. The Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) campaign led by the Public Health Department, World Vision, and other stakeholders, began 10 years ago. During the baraza, we discussed bushmeat poaching from the conservancy, and our vision as CWC to create an alternative affordable source of protein to bushmeat by establishing a fish pond project in the area. With more awareness of the importance of wildlife conservation and the provision of an alternative source of protein, we will reduce the bushmeat market, thus eventually reducing poaching incidences from the conservancy.
The Ol-malaika Trust in conjunction with CWC, is planning to extend the Dental and Medical Camp to the Samburu community come October 2024, especially to the areas neighboring Samburu National Reserve. In this regard, the Ol-malaika Team, the Larsens camp team (who also represented CWC), and the health department from Samburu County, led by the County Director of Health, met at Soroi Larsens Camp to plan for the Camp.
During this period, we scouted for potential earth dam sites, degraded rangelands at LUMO Community Wildlife Conservancy, and adjacent ranches including Oza, Mramba, and Lualenyi. Areas chosen for the potential dam sites included existing water pans that needed desilting and areas where rain run-off water could potentially be stagnant after rains.
The water pans would serve livestock and wild animals at different points of the conservancy and the rangelands thus reducing pressure on the existing water points, and encroachment into the conservancy by the livestock as the cows can access water at the ranching points. In areas that have degraded, especially in the Mramba area and some parts of Lualenyi, there will be an introduction of semi-bunds that will collect water at different points to enable re-grass the areas.
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