Education Program - The Kanzi Academy

The Kanzi Academy is a unique school, based in the heart of the Maasai wilderness, supported by the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust, and kind donations from visitors to Campi ya Kanzi.

The children here at Kanzi Academy have a unique opportunity. Not only do they learn from an international curriculum; they approach their learning from a multicultural perspective too. Kanzi Academy offers education to gifted talented pupils from the local Maasai community, as well at the children of Luca and Antonella (founders of Campi ya Kanzi).

Intimate and genuine learning environments

It is here at the Academy that the children are actively encouraged to be children. By that, we encourage free-thinkers, critical thinking, and problem solving. Learning is an active state, not one where we just sit, listen, and do. Learning is a partnership between the child, the teacher, and the environment; whether that be a classroom, or in our case, "out there" in the bush!

Protecting and learning about traditional culture

Maasai culture is steeped in history. As such the childrens' roots and and heritage is nurtured and supported accordingly. We like to think of the children as the "leaders of tomorrow". Education across all the standard school subjects is of vital importance. But there is more to it than that - these children learn and play in the heart of an environment that is being protected through the work of MWCT. Already the children know about living amongst the wildlife around us, from the smallest insect, to the Big Five! They are global citizens, and realize that. Having an awareness of the responsibility they have to their immediate bush life and community, combined with a solid education, will ensure that these "leaders of tomorrow" disseminate information to their generation, and generations in years to come.

Innovative and advanced learning opportunities

At the Kanzi Academy we believe that making small, individual changes today, through expanding our knowledge in a holistic way, can lead to a combined effort for bigger changes - namely protecting our environment, our roots and heritage, and our integrity as caretakers of this planet.

Education Program Update - A Busy Week at the Academy!

Jambo from the Kanzi Academy! This week at the Academy has been very busy! In all subjects the students have worked very hard and learned so much. We have started to look at verbs in the past tense, and realized how difficult the English language can be! The student's reading has improved dramatically, with two students now enjoying a good breadth of reading, and not just reading from the reading scheme.

Concentrated students in Class 2

We were full of rainbows this week! In our affirmations, in our conversation, and "in our hearts", as one of the Class 2 students said. So it was obvious to switch from our Big Five theme temporarily, to make a rainbow in Art.

Class 2 with their giant rainbow!

We have been making enquiries about the UK in Geography and had much discussion about Nelson Mandela in History. We have made a very simple timeline for the wall and discussed, whilst looking at pictures, his imprisonment, and then offered our thoughts and opinions of that. It has been truly amazing to witness 6, 7, and 8 year olds' compassion and respect for such a great man.

Timeline of Nelson Mandela

Phillip has done a lovely job with PE this week - introducing the game of rounders! Which is now being played by the students during break and lunch!

In Kiswahili, the children have looked at parts of the body, shapes and clothing. And in Science, they have been observing weather changes, life processes, and animals!

To switch things up slightly, we went on a walk to go see the chickens, rabbits, and horses located at Campi ya Kanzi. We found a Campi ya Kanzi staff member grinding maize by hand to feed the horses We all had a try at grinding, and found it to be quite difficult!

Head Teacher Sarah giving the maize grinding a try!

As you can see, it has been really busy here! Be sure to keep checking for photos and updates from the Academy every week!

Karibu tena - Sarah

Conservation Program Update - January Simba Scout Meeting

On Monday this week, the monthly Simba Scout meeting was held at the Chyulu Conservation and Research Center here on Kuku Group Ranch. The purpose of this meeting was not only to check in on the progress and work of the Simba Scouts, but to recap the achievements that were accomplished in 2013, and to give a presentation to these MWCT employees on the Chyulu Hills REDD+ Carbon Project. 

Joseph Lairumbe (above), MWCT's Conservation Outreach Officer, has been speaking and giving a presentation to many groups of community members of Kuku Group Ranch to inform them of this project, the importance of the project, and the benefits that it can produce for the community. The now informed Simba Scouts will be essential stakeholders in the acceptance of this project across Kuku Group Ranch, as they will effectively be able to communicate to their community members about the aims of the project, and the benefits it can produce.

Simba Scouts show off their new Chyulu Hills REDD+ Project t-shirts! 

To cap off the meeting, Conservation Managers, Lana and Dirk presented the Simba Scout Achievements for the year 2013. They included:

- Effectively tracking lions

- Taking their job very seriously by analyzing data sheets, even at home

- Encouraging community contribution to the lion project

- Training of 2 new Simba Scouts - whom have also improved their reading and writing skills tremendously

- Successful collaring of 3 lions

- Improvement of attendance to monthly meetings

- Monthly distance (walking) improvements

Lana & Dirk discuss 2013 Simba Scout achievements 

Education Program Update - First Week at the Academy

The Kanzi Academy branch of our Education Program had been busy last week with the beginning of a new term! Head Teacher Sarah shares some stories and photos with us!

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Jambo! What a great, busy, and very exciting first week we have had!

Class 2 watching as a helicopter arrives at Campi ya Kanzi

We have begun all our work and topics in earnest and had much fun along the way. Our measuring, volume, and capacity unit has begun in Maths, with the children really getting involved... and getting wet while estimating how many cups of water fill a sufuria, which really cooled us down! We also got to grips practically with fractions, using everything from cutting and sticking, to dissecting apples! We started and finished our handprint lion head too! Class 2 really enjoyed this.

Estimating volume with water!

We also encountered some unplanned experiences this week.. from finding a tortoise in a bush, to watching a helicopter land in our football field! Life here at the Academy and in the bush is always wild and varied, and we like it like that!

Class 2 found a turtle!

We also went on countless nature walks, one which saw us collecting 16 different types of grass! Phillip has started looking at weather in his teaching, so we have enjoyed making weather charts and exercising daily observations of the weather!

Grasses found on a nature walk

And with a view just behind the school of Mount Kilimanjaro, what a completely splendid environment to learn in!

More news, photos, and updates to come next week!

Karibu tena, Sarah!

Conservation Program Update - Wildlife and Habitat Monitoring

The Conservation Team was hard at work for the month of December. Shared below is a series of updates from our continued various initiatives and efforts.

The Simba Scouts have started regularly monitoring the newly collared lions. The VHF function of all the collars is working well! Furthermore, the Scouts covered large distances on their patrols on Kuku Group Ranch. The minimum walking distance is 150 km per Simba Scout per month.

Map showing the movement of the 3 collared lions in December 2013. Yellow = Namunyak (young female);
Orange = Ormawoi (young male); Green = Lorpolosi (older male). All lions spend more of their time
moving around on Kuku Ground Ranch. Namunyak moved around Mkau area in the Chyulu Hills.
Ormawoi moved around lake Olpakai and spent a lot of time in between Olorika and Olbili.
Lorpolosi moved around Oltiasika, but his collar stopped transmitting data since the 7th of December.
This technical problem is being followed up with the suppliers. 

MWCT Rangers found old elephant tusks during a security patrol in Kuku in a dry riverbed. The tusks were heavily degraded and estimated to be more than 5 years old. The tusks were most likely buried by poachers in the past, as there were no signs of an elephant carcass apart from the tusks.

Old elephant tusks that were discovered by MWCT Rangers during a security patrol

MWCT Rangers found a young abandoned zebra while on patrol. The zebra was in healthy condition and so it was decided to leave it in the filed so that it can hopefully reunite with its' family. Survival rates of orphan zebras in captivity are very low, hence the decision to leave it in the wild.

The young abandoned zebra found by MWCT Rangers

Health Program Update - New Bicycles, Education Session, & Project Osiligi

Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust distributed 3 more bicycles in November, to 3 community health workers in Olorika. The facility health workers chose these 3 workers as the most dedicated community health workers (CHW) in Olorika.

The CHW's were delighted to receive the bicycles, and asserted that the bicycle would help them in their visits to households and the health facility.

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The MWCT Health Team gather once a month for a meeting, lunch, and an educational session facilitated by one of the staff. For November, Sam and Wanyama gave a PowerPoint presentation on what they had learned from a 2-week training they attended on Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV in Nakuru, organized by the ministry of Health. 

Sam presenting an education session of PMTCT at CCRC

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As we mentioned in a previous update, the income-generating project partnered with Campi ya Kanzi  to provide guests with traditional Maasai jewlery, has been off to a good start. Thus far, 3 women groups around Kuku Group Ranch have made over 180 beaded bracelets and earrings. The women have named the initiative "Project Osiligi", which means Project Hope.

Colourful bracelets designed by the women

Education Program Update - New Term at the Kanzi Academy!

The Kanzi Academy is now back in term for the New Year, and Head Teacher Sarah has some creative and innovative thoughts to share with us on the upcoming weeks! Welcome back Kanzi Academy!

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Happy New Year! The holidays are over and we are all back at school ready for lots of teaching, learning, and fun! the children all appear to be happy, keen, and well rested and are looking forward to lots of new things this half term. So, without further ado, let me give you a general breakdown of what we will be doing!

English this half term sees us re-capping nouns, verbs, and adjectives and of course, we will continue to focus on sentence writing and story sequencing. Adding verb tenses (past, present, and future) will be a useful challenge as this will add dimension to the children's writing. Vocabulary building is ongoing, and plays an important part of day-to-day reading and writing. We will be looking at syllables, poetry, and classic fairy tales, such as "The Three Billy Goats Gruff", and "The Little Red Hen". Not only are these stories and absolute must and 'right of passage' in children's literature, they will form the basis for our Spiritual Education - as these stories rely on 'right and wrong' and 'making the right choices'. There will be many questions and 'what ids' so that we can have good debates about the choices and endings of these stories and how we might make them differently by exploring alternative options! In addition, we will be recapping the days of the week, 'weather words' and parts of the body.

In History, we will look at the late Nelson Mandela - Madiba. The children will have the opportunity to research and learn about this iconic man. They will make a time line of major achievements in his life and celebrate him as an African leader. We will also be using one of his quotes: "Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world" as a point for debate!

Geography is all about countries, capitals, climates, and culture. We will take three countries (students' choice) to explore. We will look at differences and similarities between the environment we are in and the countries we have chosen, and discuss what it might be like to live there. We'll look at flags, food, and families too! Wow!

Art takes us up close and personal with The BIG FIVE and BIG ART. We will be looking at the Big Five in Kenya; the lion, the leopard, rhino, elephant and buffalo. We will work collaboratively to creative big, exaggerated animal heads that will be displayed at school. The art emphasis will be on textures, prints, and patterns, so drawing on what we learned and the knowledge we have from last term.

Physical Education, as ever, will see us continue with swimming, horse riding, music/movement, yoga, and meditation. On top of this, Phillip continues his wonderful PE curriculum with outdoor skills, which this term includes hand-ball, volleyball, soccer skills and athletics to name a few.

Math as always is eclectic! We will (and always will) be recapping times tables, mental maths, and basic arithmetic in a broad way. Numbers are not just about sums on a board.. we have to explore problems and problem solving and apply maths to everyday situations. We are going to be looking at 5, 6, and 7 sided shapes as well as 3D shapes. We will take walks to look at where we can find these shapes in our environment as well as making them from different materials.

Phillip takes Class 2 on the scientific journey through comparing living and non-living things, weather symbols, charts and appropriate dress/clothing for such weather, basic needs of both humans and animals with comparisons between each, external parts of the human body and how to maintain its health.

Kiswahili as ever, introduces new and recaps familiar vocabulary, grammar, and spelling strategies. It is interesting in this age group how English and Kiswahili mirror each other a great deal.

Social Studies looks at travelling safely to and from school and the dangers we may encounter along the way (zebra, giraffe...), as well as asking questions such as, "How do we keep ourselves safe?". Phillip will also be introducing the topic of dangerous insects and dangerous/poisonous plants around the school. Something very useful in the Kenyan savannah!

So, from all of us here at Kanzi Academy, Karibu tena, and keeping popping back to check from more weekly updates and photos!

Kindest wishes, Sarah

Conservation Program Update - Meetings & Collaborations

As you may know from our previous posts, the Conservation team here the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust has been extremely busy in the last few months. Not only has the lion collaring process been at the forefront of the efforts, but tremendous amounts of other work has occurred.

A large part of the success of the Conservation Program, is the collaboration that occurs with various partners and organizations. Over the past few months, the following meetings and works of collaboration have taken place:

MWCT Conservation Managers were invited by Stefano Desperati from IMMap to attend the International UNEP-Interpol conference on Wildlife Crimes in Nairobi on the 7th and 8th of November. At the conference, Stefano Desperati gave a presentation on data management and its' implications for conservation management. In this presentation MWCT was featured as a case study.

Further, Chris Tuite from Conservation International (CI) visited MWCT on the 24th of November to discuess the progress of the Chyulu Hills REDD+ carbon project. During this visit, Chris announced that the international law firm, Freshfields, is willing to do pro bono work to assist the partners in the development of the necessary legal agreements.

Joseph Lairumbe (MWCT Outreach Officer) speaking to the community about the Chyulu Hills REDD+ carbon project
at one of the Free Prior and Informed Consent meetings. During these meetings, community members were
informed about the project, and consent and support was given for the project. Community members also said
that they see the importance of the project and that they would refrain from charcoal burning and help MWCT
rangers to prevent charcoal burning and illegal logging on the group ranch. 

Christina Ender from Wildlife Works visited MWCT headquarters to gather information and to work on the Project Development Document (PDD) of the Chyulu Hills REDD+ carbon project.

And finally, a total of 18 community meetings were held across Kuku and Rombo Group Ranch to inform the community members of the Chyulu Hills REDD+ Carbon Project. In these Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) meetings the community and the local leaders gave their consent to the project.