Education Program Update - Kuku Group Ranch Education Day

Annually, Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trusts hosts a Kuku Group Ranch Education Day. This day celebration is hosted in order to congratulate the school that emerges the best in the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examinations. Elangata Enkima School was the best school in the 2013 KCPE examinations within Kuku Group Ranch!

Students of Elangta Enkima

The ceremony took place last weekend, and was attended by all education stakeholders including, but not limited to: District Education Officers, Member of County Assembly, Government Chiefs, Group Ranch Official, MWCT Officers, Head Teachers from 20 schools in Kuku Group Ranch, Parents, Pupils. 

Elangata Enkima has an enrolment of 934 pupils (470 boys and 464 girls) and has 15 teachers employed. MWCT introduced an academic trophy 4 years ago to promote academic competition within Kuku Group Ranch so as to improve academic performance.

Guests of Honor seated at the celebration

The trophy was first won by Iltilal Primary School, followed by Olorika Primary School in 2011 and 2012. The performance of the top school has improved every year since the introduction of the trophy!

MWCT Eduction Director Titus Muia

Elangata Enkima was also the best school in Loitokitok Central Division and the second best public school in the entire Loitokitok District! Definitely a reason to celebrate!

Awarding of the plaque and trophy by MWCT President Samson Parashina

The Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust sends a very heartfelt congratulations to Elangata Enkima School! We are always recognizing that, along with a healthy, sustaining environment necessary for traditional Maasai pastoralist culture and livelihood, one of the top priorities will always be Education. 

Many reasons to celebrate!

Education Program Update - Another week at Kanzi Academy!

We love hearing about what the Kanzi Academy is up to - courtesy of Head Teacher Sarah! Read about the latest from the Academy below:

Jambo! Again, another busy week has been had at the Kanzi Academy! This last week, the children have been planting in their shamba (farm). As part of science, they have been looking at what condition best suits germination... so they have had much fun indeed and taken great care of their plants, which have included maize, oranges, passion fruit, potatoes and much more! Luckily, we had more than 72 mm of rain last week, so everything was well watered!

The children have been practicing acrobatics in PE and loving it! They are very skilful and have been demonstrating excellent balancing and co-ordination. They went horse riding as well, which they thoroughly enjoyed.

Classroom acrobatics! 

A few days back I flew to Nairobi to buy our reading scheme books; (Oxford Reading Tree). The children are incredibly excited and already becoming competent, independent readers and writers! To help remember which page the children are on in their book, we made book marks using a mosaic theme. The children found this concept fascinating, so I think we will be exploring this further.

Tatio, our Maasai elder who teachers Maasai Lore has been talking about nature and the environment with Class 2 as well as telling the children the names of the trees, along with their "medicinal" uses for lotions and "potions"! All the children have been completely absorbed in this. A couple of days back the children and I went on a walk; discussing the environment and noticing the changes around us since the rain. As we sat and talked, Stanley picked up some twigs, a seed pod, along with some dry grass and started to create "bush babies". Such creativity from natural things!

We have been talking about Diwali - the Hindu festival of light. So in art we have been colouring Rangoli patterns. Do not always confuse colouring with something boring! Colouring is almost like a meditation - it relaxes the mind. The conservations and questions that transpired as a result of all sitting around a table and working together was quite something!

Rangoli patterns coloured by two students! 

And whilst I mention meditation - we now have new yoga mats, thanks to Antonella, so we can now relax in comfort. In fact, last weeks' relaxation and meditation was so relaxing that two little souls fell asleep!

So to finish off - our favourite affirmation of the week was "I am unique and valuable".

More to follow next week. Karibu tena, Sarah

Education Program Update - Fist Half-Term at Kanzi Academy!

We are very happy to annonce that we will be having the Head Teacher at Kanzi Academy - Sarah Morton - contributing to weekly Education Program updates from our Kanzi Academy school, which is located at Campi ya Kanzi! Our Kanzi Academy program is extremely unique, and we are excited to share their lates updates in the coming weeks!

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I have just completed my first half term as the new Kanzi Academy Head Teacher, so this is my first contribution to the blog. Out first half term was full of fun, learning and getting to know each other. As the new head teacher, it is not only my job to ensure that we deliver a first class curriculum, but also to empower the children to find their own work ethic, leadership qualities and of course, being where we are, to work in harmony with environment that we are in.

Kanzi Academy is certainly unique. Not just because of its amazing cultural and environmental richness, but because of the way the children learn and progress.

Every child is an individual. As such, it is vitally important that they are able to express their views, opinions and maintain their identities. this is turn, leads to them being able to maximize their full potential.

We offer a broad-based curriculum, teaching: English, Maths, Kiswahili, Science, Social Studies, Geography, History, the Arts, Spiritual Education, and PE. The curriculum is an amalgamation of the UK's National Curriculum, the Kenyan Curriculum and the International Baccalaureate. This provides the children with a mixed palate of learning opportunities from which to paint their own unique picture.

Education should not just be about "blindly ticking boxes" of achievement. Whilst the children at the Kanzi Academy are academically very capable, education is about a holistic journey. As such, we engage with our environment and play our part as global citizens; partake in trips and walks, express ourselves through art and different art media as well as explore our physical body and spiritual being through general PE, swimming, horse-riding, yoga, relaxation and meditation.

As a result, I believe that the children are fully engaged in their own journeys and the impact that has on their personal identity. They are been and willing learners, aware of their own needs and areas for development. The children show great compassion and awareness for the needs of others and love to think 'outside the box'. Put simply, they are tomorrow's leaders today!

Now that I have explained the ethos of the school, I will be posting a weekly update with a few more details of what we've been up to, perhaps some comments from the children, and of course some photos. Please feel free to make any further enquiries or ask questions!

Asante and Karibu tena, Sarah.

Education Program Update - An Amazing Donation

October 16, 2013 marked a very exciting day for Campi ya Kanzi, and the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust Education Program!

Elizabeth and Ramsey from the United States have been staying at Campi ya Kanzi for the past week. Elizabeth found Campi ya Kanzi and the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust due to her extreme passion of wanting to understand the elephant poaching epidemic, along with its effects in Kenya. Her mission to be of aid to the elephants of Kenya is inspiring, and if you are interested in learning more about her story, please visit her blog here.

Iltilal Primary School

Before Elizabeth and her husband Ramsey made the journey to Kenya, Elizabeth hosted a gathering in her home. Twenty-seven women gathered to learn through Elizabeth about the elephant poaching crisis in Kenya, in regards to the ivory demands and its everlasting negative effects on the species and to the ecosystem. Elizabeth also shared with these women the information that she gathered from conservation trusts that are key stakeholders in the elimination of elephant poaching - the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust being one of them. 

Elizabeth also provided those in attendance of her presentation a donation request list. The purpose of these donations would be to support the Education Program of the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust, and more specifically, The Kanzi Academy. 

Samson with the unbelievable donation of school supplies!

We cannot express enough gratitude to Elizabeth and Ramsey, for not only travelling across the world with 3 massive bags of school supplies, but for expressing such support and gratitude towards our programs here, and for inspiring immense generosity in others. 

Wow!

The donation is absolutely outstanding. The total number of items donated totalled approximately 14 000 items. Just unbelievable. The school supplies included were:

2 560 pieces of construction paper, 2 160 pieces of notebook paper, 1 204 crayons, 362 regular pencils, 170 coloured pencils, 136 colour markers, 100 stickers, 99 erasers, 88 glue sticks, 80 pencil sharpeners, 75 dry erase markets, 69 ballpoint pens, 21 sets of math flashcards, 20 pairs of scissors, 13 rulers, 11 pencil cases, 8 alphabet flash cards, 7 letter practice pads, 6 paint sets,  5 nature, science, space, history reference books, 5 sets color & shape flash cards, 5 puzzle and crossword books, 4 dry erase learning boards, 4 calculator sets, 2 backpacks.

Elizabeth and head teacher, Catherine, meet in the courtyard of Iltilal Primary School

Due to the overwhelming amount of supplies, it was believed it would be most beneficial if the supplies were split between four different schools within Kuku Group Ranch. One of these schools being the Iltilal Primary School. This school, with 861 school children from grades Nursery - Grade 8, were extremely welcoming to Elizabeth as she brought a large bag of school supplies on her visit!

School children in Grade 6 beam with excitement when catching a glimpse of the supplies!

The donated items were all of tremendous quality and will ensure sustained use in these schools for years to come

Head teacher Catherine displaying some of the items to her class!

Iltilal School demonstrated extremely gratitude towards Elizabeth during her visit!

The generosity of our guests at Campi ya Kanzi is immensely appreciated. Asante sana Elizabeth and Ramsey, your donation and support has contributed to the aim and objectives of the partnership between Campi ya Kanzi and the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust and we are forever grateful!

Education Program Update

With some recent successes we thought now would be a good time to pass along some updates on the Education Program of MWCT. With the support of various sponsors, MWCT has now facilitated the placement of 14 students in some of Kenya's top secondary schools.

Also through the support of the sponsorship program, a beneficiary of the scholarship program will soon complete his tertiary education and graduate as a qualified teacher.

With the support of all our donors and well-wishers, we currently have 49 teachers and 13 support staff permanently employed, distributed throughout all primary schools on the Kuku Group Ranch.

Thank you all very much for your continued generous support of the MWCT Education Program, and for allowing these young children to be able to attend school.