Volunteering; a lifestyle that blew my mind!

My name is Carol Muthoni and I work for A Rocha Kenya as an administrator. Around two and a half years ago, being a "city gal" brought up and living in Nairobi, I had never taken time to think much about the environment. I would go to parks with friends on picnics and also visit Nairobi Nature trail where they have caged some wild animals and walk around, see them and it was cool and that was it. It was nice to be out of the hustle and bustle of the city! But how on earth did they manage to keep the place so amazingly beautiful with variety of trees, flowers, birds, butterflies, animals, fresh air and all?

In December 2005, a friend of mine requested me to accompany his nieces on a trip to a small touristy village - Watamu at the coast. I was between jobs then and so I thought it was a good idea, so I jumped to the opportunity. I had never been to the Coast Province before. In Watamu, we had been booked to stay at Mwamba field study centre for one night. I met this guy who introduced himself as Stanley, and he showed us around and into our rooms. Later after my first swim in the sea, I had a chat with him and he told me all about A Rocha and ASSETS. It is after talking to him and seeing their efforts and commitment to care for the environment that I realized what a beautiful place the world would be if all utilized our resources responsibly. I realized that as an organization, A Rocha was putting a lot of efforts in keeping the world a beautiful place to live in, both for humans and other creation. I was so impressed and wanted to help. I straight away decided to help with administration of the ASSETS Programme without realizing I wasn't going to work or live in Nairobi any more after all. After volunteering for nearly 7 months, I was offered employment as A Rocha Kenya administrator.

I have come to love life outside the city so much though there are times I miss the city life, but not enough to wish to go back. A Rocha opened my eyes and I was able to see that there was something I could do in a small way that could save the world. Now! The guy I first talked to in my first trip ever to the Kenyan coast, the first of that tribe (Giriama) I ever spoke to in my life, the one who introduced me to the wild, my boss and my best friend apparently became the love of my life! We are getting married this year in October and that means I belong to the Kenyan Coast and to the wild now and forever! His name is Stanley Baya, the ASSETS Coordinator.

A very big “Asante SANA”!

We would really like to thank very much indeed the Giraffe Centre in Lang'ata, Nairobi, for the very generous donation of Ksh 100,000 (c.$1,600) which has come at a particularly timely point. Ksh 60,000 of the donation will go direct to pay bursaries for children in Secondary school since this year our income from the eco-tourism facilities has been pretty poor given the troubles we had earlier in the year in Kenya which has chased off a lot of tourists.

The balance will go towards costs of a holiday "eco-camp" for 30 of the beneficiaries in August where they come and stay at the A Rocha Kenya field study centre in Watamu for 3 days, located right on the beach. Over the three days they are given a lot of input of exciting and stimulating environmental education particularly about Arabuko-Sokoke Forest and Mida Creek, with games, videos, talks, excursions (e.g. snorkelling in the Marine Park and to the Mida board walk) and for the two years we've done it so far they've really enjoyed it and learnt a lot. Many of the kids, even though they live only 15-20kms from the sea, have never actually seen it, so for them to have the chance to even go snorkelling blows them away!! So it's really good to be able to do this for them and this donation will really help make it a great experience - thank you, the Giraffe Centre!

An Urgent Matter

You might have been wondering why there has not been news. I have had to put work aside for a week to attend to some critical, urgent personal matter, in fact to pay dowry for my wife to be on the 11th of October. You never know what to expect in this and therefore leaving very little room to prepare ending up very supprised by what it turns out to be. Caro (Caroline) my fiance comes from the Kamba tribe so we travelled about 800 km north to Tala where she comes from, a beautiful country side about 60 km from Nairobi. My mother was very supprised to learn that coffee is from berries and not leaves of the coffee plant. Having spent all her time down at the coast, she was indeed thrilled by the long journey and the sudden very different set-up inland.

Among the things required as dowry are 42 live goats, one bull and loads of honey. Most interesting, I dont't do alot of slaughtering at home but here, I have had to slaughter a goat as a symbol of accepting Caro. This went very well and the meat was delicous. After all the feasting we were alowed to negotiate on the dowry and give a date for when we shall present this price. 6th of September was agreed at in the end; barely one month before the wedding.

I am looking forward to the 12 hrs drive tomorrow night going back to work!

"We are participating in WildlifeDirect's business strategy. Please help us by taking this user survey, thank you"

A noble task completed

It was indeed a mammoth task! Spending over 6 hrs riding a motorbike for a whole week, two minor motorbike accidents plus alot of fun saw through the task of paying bursaries for over 200 beneficiaries. Thanks to our esteemed supporters for providing the necessary resources to accomplish this.During the process, Tsofa Mweni, the environmental education officer fell off the motorbike (a Yamaha DT 125) on a very sandy patch of the Girimacha road. In the same week, Tony, the Extension officer hit a goat on the road and escaped with minor bruises. Nevertheless, the sight of more than 200 smiles from the beneficiaries as they received their school fees assures that all the trouble is indeed worthwhile.  Here are the beneficiaries

Janet Kalama

Jonathan Menza

Who Are The Beneficiaries

Selection of new ASSETS beneficiaries for year 2008. Friday the 7th marked the climax of a 3 week long exercise that saw over 70 students being selected to receive scholarships from the ASSETS eco-bursary fund. This process that started with the whole of the ASSETS team visiting all applicants to assess their families' ability to pay schools fees for the children ended up with the ASSETS Bursary sub-committee meeting to do the actual selection. This year the meeting was held at Malindi Town Secondary school where one of the committee members teaches instead of the usual forest station conference hall and it lasted for just under 6 hrs.

This year, a record 95 students from the 8 ASSETS beneficiary schools applied for bursaries. The very enthusiastic bursary sub-committee has never been as strict in their consideration of applicants as they were this year. This was to ensure that bursaries reach those in most need whilst maximising their input in conservation of Arabuko-Sokoke Forest and Mida Creek. The ASSETS beneficiaries

ASSETS has so far secured sponsorship for 5 of these students from AGGREKO, a UAE based Electrical Engineering firm as part of their Social Corporate responsibility. AGGREKO will be supporting these students through secondary school and University. A major task to secure funding to support the rest still lingers, considering the blow suffered by the tourism industry following the disputed presidential elections on December 27th.

Kalama Nickson-who is a sponsored student.