Wildlife Clubs of Kenya Student Leaders and Patrons/Education Officers Courses

WCK Patron and Education Officers Orientation Course

Participants at Makalia Falls

A three day WCK Patrons and Education Officers Orientation Course was conducted in Lake Nakuru National Park WCK Education Centre. Participants for this course were drawn from a cross the country; Western, North Rift, Central, Mt. Kenya, North Eastern, Eastern, Central and South Rift as well as Coast Regions of the country.

One of the participants from this course was Mr. Philip Gitahi, who is WCK Education Officer Nairobi. He hosted the Student Leaders Course at WCK Nairobi Education Center in June. During this course he shared how he attended a workshop after their course that was discussing issues to deal with PEACE. When he was given opportunity to contribute to the discussion, he said everybody was impressed with his knowledge on the subject and asked him which school he went to learn all he knew about peace. He proudly told them " I am a graduate of Pathways To Peace Course held in Lake Nakuru in April 2010." We know many more participants from this course have organized courses for their colleagues back in their schools and the regions they represented. Well done everyone!

WCK Student Leaders Orientation (Ndere Island National Park) Course

Student on a rope ascent activity

A three day WCK Student Leaders Orientation Course was conducted in Ndere Island National Park – Lake Victoria. Participants were from high schools in Nyanza, Western and North Rift Regions of Kenya.

WCK Student Leaders Orientation (Lake Nakuru National Park) Course

Privilege and Social Injustice class

A three day WCK Student Leaders Orientation Course was conducted in Lake Nakuru National Park – WCK Education Centre. Participants were from high schools in Central and South Rift Regions of Kenya.

During a group discussion one student shared with the group how her parents had to separate as they were from the two main tribes who were fighting during post election violence in Rift Valley. Her father had aranged for her mother to escape to Nakuru town, only returning after the violence had ended. It was very emotional as she shared how neighbours, families and friends were killed as she watched and some of the bodies dumped in pit latrines. For another student, her parents had also separated during the violence, but unfortunately had not gone back to each other two years later. These stories brought great meaning and measure to the importance of PEACE to this group. All were excited at the end of their course to go make a difference in their schools and villages.

WCK Student Leaders Orientation (Nairobi WCK Headquarters) Course

David Sheldrick Animal Orphanage Nairobi

A three-day WCK Student Leaders Orientation Course was conducted in Langata - Nairobi WCK Headquarters grounds. Participants were from high schools in Nairobi, Central and Mt. Kenya Regions of the country.

During the first day of the course, one of the students complained that he expected the other participants to be from the other regions of the country especially with tribes that targeted his members of the community (Central Kenya is predominantly settled by members of Kikuyu tribe who were the main target during post election violence outside their ancestral home and participants on this course were predominantly of the Kikuyu ethnic group). We reminded him that peace was a multi-layered medium which can only be fostered by first developing peace within ourselves, with our family members, schoolmates and to a great degree between tribes and even greater between nations. We also accepted his call for having participants from different regions/tribes come together during peace building efforts to better understand the difference and build respect across the divide. In phase two of Pathways To Peace we planned to select our top performing participants from every course to come together for a 10 day National wilderness expedition course later in the year.

WCK Student Leaders Orientation (Mombasa) Course

On board the WCK boat

A three day WCK Student Leaders Orientation Course was conducted in Mombasa at WCK Coast Education Centre next to Mombasa Marine Park. Participants were from Eastern and Coast Regions of Kenya.

Two weeks after the end of this course, Janam Peace Building received a passionate phone call from one of the participants, David Njue. While implementing one of his end-of-course Action Plans (educating members of his local Wildlife Club on peace), his club patron was so impressed with the training that he approached the school deputy principal and they organized for him to scale up the training for the entire school population of over 200 students. The participant signed off by saying, "Mwalimu (Teacher in Swahili), now we are all living in peace and respect for each other across our religious difference – Muslims and Christians. Asante Sana (thank you very much) Mwalimu." This was just a few weeks before the referendum on the new constituion, where campaigns for and against the new constitution had polarized the country between religious differences due to contentious issues regarding Muslim Kadhi Courts. We thank David and the others who went beyond the Action Plans they had outlined at the end of their courses to preach PEACE in their schools and villages at such a critical time. Our new constitution gives us even greater foundation within which to continue with our work of spreading peace especially as we prepare for the next elections in March 2013.

May Peace always prevail within and without our individual borders!

WCK Student Leaders Loita Wilderness Expendition

Map reading

We had a 10 day wilderness expedition to the Loita hills-Nguruman Escarpment of Narok County. We had 16 WCK student leaders, 2 WCK staff and 1 WCK patron, as well as 3 JPB staff. We were accompanied by 2 local Maasai Cultural Liasons. We hiked from Entasekera through Neminengio Forest and down to Enkutoto plains covering a distance of almost 60 kms. All participants enjoyed the opportunity to visit and learn from the local Maasai friends we encountered and who opened their homes for us to visit. At the end of the course our independent Monitoring and Evaluation firm BCC came to conduct a mid term evaluation through interviews with all participants. We were also honored to have the KWS Senior Warden Ewaso Ngiro station Mr. Ole Nashu preside over the graduation ceremony of our candidates at Kims Villa Narok. We thank all those who worked tirelessly to ensure this course ran on schedule, especially our donors through Friends of Janam Peace Building Foundation.