Nkiloriti Primary Class One got their work off to a great start for the September art exhibition ‘What Conservation Means to Me’ at Nanyuki's Lily Pond Arts Centre.
After two initial lessons on ‘Conservation’ and some drawing work they chose to work on Trees . The reasons given for the importance of trees in their initial drawings ranged from ‘We need trees to live’....'guests come to see trees and animals not cars’ to 'the wild animals need trees’.
So on ‘Painting and Creating’ Day it should not have been surprising, but was nevertheless inspiring, to have the 6-9 year olds rattling off their 8 most important reasons for protecting trees with no input from the teacher:
Trees protect our grassland
Trees bring rain
Trees give shelter
Trees give firewood
Trees give fruit for us to eat
Trees give us herbal remedies
Trees give leaves and fruit for our animals
Trees help us with fencing and house-building
Much hand-painting resulted in trees taking root around the classroom and much cutting, sticking and drawing resulted in a great montage for the art exhibition: the first finished product...(Well, almost...)
Each of the Kenyan schools will choose a different focus and a variety of media for the exhibition: conservation of elephants being an important theme for some with Africa’s huge rise in poaching . Conservation of water, grassland, wild animals, rivers, and Maasai and Samburu culture being other areas.
Our friends in Ireland and England are also preparing to join us in this display see Becomeafriend.net and we aim to create an exciting juxtaposition of European and African ideas of conservation. Watch this space as we paint/make/create our conservation ideas...
Women are making great progress in so many areas throughout the world but progress can sometimes be painfully slow in the rural areas of Africa.
We have just finished our survey of the schools we support- the most positive gender ratio we have currently achieved in Primary Schools is 42% girls to 58% boys in Maasai areas, falling to 35% girls in the Samburu areas, with some classes as low as 13% girls. In order not to ‘lose’ this whole generation of girls we are currently conducting a house to house survey, with the help of very active Chiefs and Community Health Workers, to see how many children are still at home (both boys and girls) and to work with families on ways to help the parents to register their children. Sometimes something as simple as a uniform can be the difference between parents giving their child an education or not.
Imagine having your whole future hinging on a dress or a pair of shorts.
It goes without saying that education is a basic human right. We often have to remind ourselves here that this is the 21st century: just because kids here were born on the wrong side of the equatorial divide they still have equal rights. Girls have as much right to education as boys- but in educating girls the benefits for the future can be far, far larger. In the rural areas where FGM rates are still very high- 98% in the most remote communities, early marriage is inevitable. Since in the developing world 70,000 adolescents are killed by pregnancy the health risks involved in FGM are far reaching: keeping girls in school delays FGM and therefore delays marriage and saves lives: that simple. Babies born to adolescent Mum’s are 50% more likely to die in their first year. This is the 21st century. That figure is just not acceptable. Education saves lives.
In addition the effects on the economy and the environment are clear. Whilst there is enormous debate on the actual statistics, there is nevertheless an agreement that there is a clear correlation between the number of years a girl spends in school and her family size. Many studies agree that a 10% increase in female literacy leads to a decline of 0.5% total fertility; seven or more years in school leads to half the number of children; giving a girl no education she will bear 6.8 children, if she completes secondary this will fall to 3.2 children. Whatever figures you are reading the correlation remains. Moreover a mere one year in Primary school boosts the earning power of women with girls putting up to 90% of their earnings back into the family income compared to boys who will put back only 35%. Statistics are statistics and open to abuse, but the trend is clear.
An educated girl accesses health care not only for herself but also for her family. She is more likely to access pre and post natal care, to give birth in a health facility, to access family planning, to have a reduced risk of HIV AIDS both for herself and her family. She is less likely to be spending the 3 - 7 hours a day by an open fire exposing herself and her infant to smoke that is 100 times above accepted safety levels- the equivalent of smoking 2 packs of cigarettes a day...... and so the list goes on.. and on...
Study after study has shown that educating girls is one of the most effective ways to fight poverty and social prejudice. An educated girl has more say in her home, family decisions are more democratic and domestic violence is reduced.
Despite all these benefits, 30 million more girls than boys are out of school in the world. Empowering women and achieving gender equality is a difficult and slow process that entails shifting attitudes, traditions and practices.
How can we afford NOT to educate women? If only as the most effective way of improving health care and reducing healthcare costs. If only to reduce population growth. If only to improve family incomes. If only to give the girls in the developing world some of the chances that our girls in the West have had for three generations.
Above: meet Rose and her daughter Selina...Rose, who was unable to finish her own Primary education, was the first woman in the locality to open a bank account saving for Selina's 'university' education, Rose was also the first woman to wear trousers - I have often thought that the best gender equality motivator in schools would be to offer the girls a chance to wear trousers. (Rose is also an excellent pancake tosser......)
Support girls education today in whatever way you can!!
Head Ranger Kimorgo is seen here untangling a Greater Kudu calf which had lost its mother and become caught up in undergrowth yesterday, following an unlikely battle between the mother and a large Kudu bull. Happily mother and baby were united some hours later.
The Greater Kudu Bull pictured here with his magnificent horns.Some months back we watched him fighting for half a day with another bull of equal size, finally breaking one of his opponent’s horns completely off. This one horned lop sided bull stayed around for a while but has not been sighted recently. This bull has horns near the maximum recorded size of five feet - in 2 and a half spirals.
Maasai and Samburu morani use these horns as musical instrumentsprized for their deep resonant sound.
It was a very sad day last week when a lone young male elephant was killed by poachers nearby.
The market price of ivory is at an all time high of over $700 per pound in China and Vietnam, the demand being fueled by the newly rich middle classes desiring ivory carvings. Kenya’s elephant population is estimated at between 32,000 and 35,000, but estimates for Africa remain vague- between 400,000- 650,000. The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) considers that as many as 100 elephants a day are being slaughtered across Africa - even if this number is exaggerated the problem is still massive.
Kenya banned hunting in 1977 and banned the selling of ivory, symbolically burning all its old ivory stock in 1989 and again last year, but the problem of poaching in neighbouring Tanzania where ‘controlled’ hunting is still legal is far greater, and it is from Tanzania and Zambia that most of the illegal ivory is shipped.
Until all ivory trading, legal and illegal, is stopped, there will continue to be an incentive for the poorest Africans to risk their lives shooting elephants to fuel demand. Priority now is to convince the older Chinese that they no longer want to buy ivory. Engaging constructively with Chinese people, who currently number over a million resident in Africa, with numbers fast rising, is clearly key.
Back to the dead elephant. The tracker dogs (bloodhounds) did a first class job of tracking the Samburu poachers to a distant village, but from here they are able to melt away. Even when this investigation is concluded and if they are apprehended, so long as there is a market and an order, there will be other poverty stricken Maasai and Samburu warriors ready to take their chances for the few dollars they can receive for two tusks. This time our Rangers were able to drive off the poachers and recover the tusks. These were passed to the Kenya Wildlife Service with a good deal of formal paper-work. They are then indelibly tattooed - taking them forever out of the market place.
So the radio network gets busy as security is increased across the whole area and the location of all herds and lone individual elephants is monitored ever more closely.
Meanwhile we treated this as a learning opportunity for all the local schools: environmental clubs and teachers from Ngabolo and Kimanjo Primary plus all the Kimanjo secondary students came to look at the now putrid carcass.Vultures, tawny eagles, martial eagles and ravens are fast assisting the hyenas and jackals to dismember the carcass carcass. These Maasai kids have all been brought up to live alongside elephants. Despite their daily life being made hazardous by elephants they all value them as part of their landscape and heritage and they know that shooting elephants is not only illegal and dangerous but morally very out of kilter with their culture. They are taken back to school to consider how they can help to ensure the survival of elephants for their own children.
Secondary Students on Safari
Only by stopping the market will these tusks be totally saved
I remember breathing a heavy sigh in our first year here when I realised the community wanted a new school... and I had thought we had our hands full supporting the existing government Primaries to improve their standards. Did they really NEED a new school? In the first year of opening 180 pupils had registered in the new Ngabolo Primary and 5 years on there are 400 pupils. Presumably Ngabolo has met a need for those 400 kids. Certainly some of these pupils have transferred from other schools, but the numbers in those schools have remained fairly constant with a slight growth. Fair to say that the majority of pupils would not have been accessing education without Ngabolo Primary. Last year we realised we had to begin again - by registering Nkiloriti Primary, for pupils unable to travel the distance to Ngabolo. Thankfully (for our budget at least) this will be a less meteoric rise in pupil numbers as the community there is smaller. At the same time we realised that we had now to build and finance the beginning of a cheap Day Secondary School...or else many of the Primary graduates would be left hanging: in the first year Kimanjo Secondary took in 29 of the poorest students... but this year it is prepared for 50...It is fair to say that NONE of these students would have gone on to secondary education without this new school.
2012 begins with our campaign to get more bottoms on seats; particularly in the samburu communities who currently do not access education as well as the Laikipiak Maasai. We have monitored the dropout in the Samburu nurseries, affecting the girls primarily, who do not proceed to Class One in equal numbers to boys. We are assisted in this campaign by the education department’s new and sensible 2012 campaign to stop children being held back to repeat classes to raise their tests scores, as has traditionally been the case, . That policy inevitably led to a high drop- out rate, especially for adolescent girls found to be in classes with much younger pupils. Crunch time: This focus on more kids starting school and on preventing drop-outs along the way will inevitably put more pressure on school quality.
What to do? Of necessity to continue to take a holistic approach to education. In order to get bottoms on seats the usual ‘incentives’ are offered.. uniforms is a major incentive here- as are footballs ! But the main way is (of course?!) education... educating families to see the value of education through the local Chiefs and Head-teachers, and through our Liaison Officers and Health Workers (for education means better healthcare access) visiting each manyatta in turn. And this intervention is virtually free (... can breathe a sigh of relief on that one then)... but how to keep up the quality of this education when government funds remain so small?No magic solutions. Every community across the developing world is different, there is no one size fits all approach. Even here we have to monitor the differences carefully between the Maasai and Samburu ranches and we must continue to rigorously collate data. The solution paying the greatest dividends so far, is to identify our strongest and most dedicated Teaching Assistants to send for Teacher Training, is paying dividends. Whilst the training itself is affordable, we do, then have to pay larger salaries for them on their return, making a hefty increase to our ongoing teacher salary budget. A constant classroom building programme is also essential, and very expensive. Quality education needs classrooms of a reasonable standard. A water programme is also essential. School feeding is an important human right but our (admittedly very patchy) data does not show us that it adds significantly to attendance or test scores. Textbooks, electricity, computers, desks, and resources are also important but not as significant as other interventions.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the most significant factor for improving schools, after improving teacher numbers and teacher training is to have good Head teachers. The best of the Head teachers that we work with would compete very well with the best Head teachers anywhere in the Developed world- and what Head teachers in the developed world would work so enthusiastically for a 14 week term, beginning at 7.30am, with no mid-term break living in remote and very basic conditions where you are lucky to get one bucket of water per day? They have a huge management role, with no secretarial or bursary assistance, in addition to a heavy teaching commitment, and they work on a daily basis with illiterate parents to encourage, reassure, and assist them in getting their children to perform well. Kenya, taking too much from its former Colonial Master , the UK, is assessment driven -still valuing test scores above all. But all the great Head teacher that we have the privilege to work with put as much focus on school ethos, pupils with Special Needs, individual student counselling, sport, school feeding, dance and drama and after school activities as they do on academic work. We are very privileged to work with them. It is these dedicated Head teachers who will have a bigger impact on raising quality in Kenyan education than any other single intervention we can make.
Its never to young for a school uniform.. or a school book... the simpler interventions! Christmas Day Party for Nkiloriti Nursery children!
