Community Development
The main pillar of biodiversity protection
Adopt An Acre for Wildlife
Through the “Adopt-an-Acre” plan, contributors can adopt an acre of land in our conservancies with a donation to the Wildlife Habitat Trust. The donations collected will go towards paying staff wages and land leases when there are tourism disruptions, like the recent COVID pandemic. The Adopt an Acre Plan strives to prevent a collapse of the conservancies due to local communities having to fall back on alternative income generation and land use which may harm the biodiversity the conservancies harbor.
Recently many of our customers have asked how they might help to provide some financial contributions so that the local people can continue receiving an income during these difficult times and we have now come up with our “Adopt-an-Acre” plan as a way of funding the payments to the community at a time when there is no tourism income.
What your contribution can achieve:
With US$15 going to Maasai families for conservancy lease and US$20 to camp staff wages
With US$100 going to Maasai families for conservancy lease and US$75 to camp staff wages
With US$600 going to Maasai families for conservancy lease and US$450 to camp staff wages
As a special incentive, anyone adopting 30 acres or more will receive a credit from Porini & Gamewatchers Safaris for the same amount donated, to be used for payment of a stay at any of the Porini Camps in 2023 or 2024. So a donation of US$ 1050 to adopt 30 acres will receive a travel credit worth US$ 1050.
Creating Career Opportunities for Wildlife passionate Youth
The Koiyaki Guiding School Scholarship Fund
The Koiyaki Guiding School was established in 2005 in order to provide a tourism training institution for the Maasai. The school is located in the Naboisho Conservancy and takes in 26 students per year.
The aim of the Scholarship Fund is to create opportunities for promising youth who show a passion for wildlife and conservation, but who may not be able to afford the school fees.
Staff at Porini Camps come almost entirely from the local community. As the company continues to expand it creates more opportunities for community members to be hired by us.
Your donation will allow for a student to be enrolled in a certificate course in Tour Guiding and Operations by the Kenya National Examination Council. Your donation will assist with payments for tuition, meals, school trips, excursions and accommodation.
Participation in the course improves employment opportunities for local community members, as well as encouraging long-term conservation efforts for the Maasai Mara and other Kenyan ecosystems.
What your contribution can achieve
The Koiyaki Guiding School provides tourism training for the Maasai. The Scholarship Fund creates opportunities for promising youth who show a passion for wildlife and conservation, but who may not be able to afford the school fees.
Appeasing the Human-Wildlife Conflict
Porini Boma Strenthening Programme
Predator-proof bomas (enclosures) involve reinforcing the traditionally constructed boma with chain-link fencing, treated wooden posts and secured gates so as to prevent predators from entering the Maasai village and livestock enclosures.
The reinforced bomas ensure that predators that target their natural prey are no longer threats to the community. This means that the predators located within our conservancies are not going to become victims of revenge killings.
The predators are also less likely to fall prey themselves to poachers as they will seldom stray outside of the conservancies in search of easy meals.
What your contribution can achieve
We aid the local Maasai in reinforcing their traditionally constructed bomas to help prevent predators from entering the Maasai village and livestock enclosures. The reinforced bomas ensure that predators that target their natural prey are no longer threats to the community.
Fostering a more dignified Learning Atmosphere
School Sanitation Project
This project addresses the provision of adequate toilet facilities in schools which is a much-neglected but vital issue for school children in rural Kenya.
The simple fact is that Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) conditions in rural Kenya are a big problem. Unfortunately it remains a silent problem as cultural attitudes make it difficult to discuss the subject of toilets and hygiene at policy and community level. As a result, we have a sanitation crisis that silently gnaws at school welfare and education. In fact one of the schools we had a toilet block put in was about to be closed down by the government due to not meeting basic sanitation standards for the kids.
We have with generous support from our longtime friend Mr Anaban Ghosh put in toilet blocks at Iloirero and Olanti schools in Selenkay and ilmonchin school in Ol Kinyei.
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What your contribution can achieve
We seek to raise US$ 14,000 for Ilmonchin Primary School. It has a population of about 300 pupils and the whole school population relies on just two cubicle latrines for both pupils and teachers. Funds will provide the school with a dignified learning atmosphere by separating teachers’ toilets from their pupils and also giving boys and girls separate toilets
Curbing the Impact of increasing Droughts
Provision of Water to Selenkay Villages
Access to water for community members surrounding the Selenkay Conservancy has become increasingly difficult due to increased incidents of drought caused by unpredictable rain patterns and less rainfall in the area in the last few years. As part of our pledge to support the communities that we lease conservancy land from, we have improved access to water for two of the villages that neighbour Porini Amboseli Camp. We have provided each of the villages with one 2,000 litre water tank and organised for water to be delivered to them twice a week.
What your contribution can achieve
As part of our pledge to support the communities from which we lease conservancy land, we have improved access to safe water with the provision of water tanks. The project now raises funds towards the cost of the ongoing water deliveries.
Alleviating the financial burden of childrens’ education
Ol Kinyei & Selenkay Education Support
This important program is focused on raising funds with 100% going to supporting school fees for children, alleviating some of the financial burdens of the children’s education.
As well as paying termly fees, parents incur the additional costs for uniforms, books, school activities and in many cases, school rehabilitation projects – despite the fact that primary education in Kenya is free. These hardships often result in under-educated youth with little hope for healthy careers.
The Bursary Fund assists students in covering essential education-related costs and ensures that they are able to complete important stages in their education, which is a crucial step in guaranteeing a solid career path.
Through the growth of the Bursary Fund, it is our hope that in the future we will be able to support students in secondary and tertiary education.
The overall aim of the Bursary Fund is to:
- Increase and improve access to educational institutions;
- Improve gender equality and disparities by promoting both boys and girls in the community;
- Assist students in their transition between primary, secondary, college, and university;
- Improve retention and completion rates of both secondary and tertiary education; and
- Reduce the impacts of poverty.
Our continued support of the communities assists in maintaining the important balance between ensuring the preservation of wildlife lands and sustaining improved livelihoods of the landowners.
What your contribution can achieve
We are supporting the families of Ol Kinyei with our Bursary Fund, alleviating some of the financial burden of the childrens’ education. The Bursary Fund assists students in covering essential education-related costs and ensures that they are able to complete important stages in their education, which is a crucial step in guaranteeing a solid career path.
Parents must make the following contributions every year per child.
Empowering communities to generate an alternative income while conserving bees.
BEE KEEPING Micro Enterprise for Youth & Women
The objective of the project is to support the youth and women, raise conservation awareness while generating an alternative income for the group, improving livelihoods, and conserving bees. We are working with youth & women groups around the conservancies we are involved in, as the youth have the highest rates of unemployment and the women are also more vulnerable and need to support their families often with limited resources. The project is focused on sustainable, scalable development that empowers an ever-increasing number of local communities with income-generation and food security.
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What your contribution can achieve
Your contribution will go towards acquiring more beehives and beekeeping kits.
A complete langstroth beehive consists of a ply-wood insulated brood box and roof. The brodbox features 10 brood frames fitted with comb starters strips, fixed floor and queen excluder as well as a metallic stand.
A beekeeping kit consists of bee suit, gloves, smoker, hive tool, gum boots, torch and bee brush plus a knapsack bag.
Empower students and the local community to use ICT based learning
Digital Smart Learning Project
We believe that the youth are the future of conservation, in our country and continent, and as a company, we’re committed to supporting the landowner’s youth and communities in the areas we operate through education support, digital learning, exchange programs, and in sustainable micro-enterprises. Despite the downturn in tourism due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020/2021, we remained fully committed to our community projects in line with our company mission and significantly increased our support to the communities. We did this through partnerships with many of our generous and loyal Porini guests and like-minded local and international organizations.
We live in a digital world and if our community youth can effectively ‘speak this language’ and operate in this space it offers the chance to get better jobs, create new opportunities as well as being more effective in their lives and not be limited by their classroom, teachers, or textbooks.
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What your contribution can achieve
For Smart Learning we are seeking to sponsor a school with the full KIT including a server loaded with the entire Kenya Primary School syllabus, a projector, 10 tablets, server accessories (mouse, keyboard, bluetooth speakers, solar panel, a charging system for the whole unit including the tablets as well as necessary training for the school to efficiently get to use the equipment
Help communities capitalize on consistent milk prices through cold storage facilities
Solar milk cooling project
One of the Women’s groups in Ol Kinyei Conservancy in Maasai Mara now has a solar-powered milk cooling plant. Livestock is vital to our Maasai community, part of their culture, and heritage, and also important to support and sustain their livelihoods. However unfortunately as there hasn’t been adequate cold storage when there is too much milk they get very poor prices, can’t store it and so leading to wastage. In addition, as they are selling it individually they don’t have access to the higher prices and more consistent market offered by the commercial milk companies in Kenya.
Read MoreEducation in Conservation
MAARIFA
Gamewatchers Safaris and Porini Camps are proudly working with The Maarifa Foundation – an Australian-based Education for Conservation Non-Profit organization set up by Kristy Thomson who is part of our Gamewatchers team based in Australia – to support children in the community conservancies in Kenya. The Maarifa Foundation provides education support and opportunity for these students, and with an aim to develop a deep-seeded passion for conservation and wildlife in the younger generations (who in the future of course will be their community’s leaders).
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Supporting girls in school
In the rural schools many girls can miss 3-7 days of education by not attending during their menstrual cycle leading to them not having the same opportunity to learn as the boys in addition to stigmatism. And so, we have partnered with Madhvi Dalal of Padmad to support the girls in the schools in the areas we operate. Pad Mad has a mission, “To keep as many girls as possible in school, and away from transactional sex; and to uplift lives and maintain dignity through improved tools for menstruation and to positively impact the environment through responsible waste management.” Their products are biodegradable, affordable, long-lasting and sustainable, and we are committed to environmental responsibility. Additionally, our pads are stitched in rural Kenyan communities, using locally produced materials, creating employment for marginalised women.
We have supported this at several schools at Ol Kinyei and Selenkay and it starts with a presentation to the school including the boys to remove the stigmatism and better understanding for all. There is a huge need to do more and any support to this program is greatly appreciated.
PadMad is an initiative committed to improving women’s health through environmentally responsible action. Through education, empowerment, and sustainability we aim to work towards ending period poverty.
What your contribution can achieve
Your contribution will go towards the purchase of menstrual kits including 5 liners, 1 liner holder, 2 small daytime pads, and 2 large nighttime pads.
The pad is reusable, 100% bio-degradable, and lasts five years. The kit is made in Kenya.
Guest Testimonials
“What a marvellous example of how people and wildlife can live alongside one another. Thank you all.”
“For any serious wildlife photographer, I don’t think you can do better in Kenya or Tanzania than the Porini Mara and Lion Camps for the big cats.”