The full group of participants from Rekero Primary School along with the teachers and judging panel.
Twende Porini or ‘Let’s Go Wild’ is Asilia Africa’s flagship yearly environmental and community program in the Mara where a group of children from local communities in the Mara area surrounding Asilia’s camps participate to win a big prize! Mara Elephant Project has partnered with them in 2019 at Rekero Primary School to select four children to be hosted for four days starting on March 12 at Asilia’s Rekero Camp where they learn about wildlife and the environment. During their time there, lessons are combined with games and fun activities, including playing sports, talent shows, and storytelling to help the children learn about sustainable tourism and conservation, and the benefits that these have for them and their families.
The children enjoying activities at Twende Porini all run by Asilia Kenya’s Field Operations Manager & PI Coordinator Helen Schutte.
The three other schools where children are selected include Mbitin Primary School, Ol Koroto Primary School and Ngoswani Primary School all schools where wildlife clubs are run by Kenya Wildlife Trust.
In 2019, there are four conservation partners like MEP hosting preliminary school visits to select the winners that will participate on March 12. The children were tasked with creating a performance piece that best illustrates conservation. On February 25, MEP Administrator Elvis Saaytoi along with Communications Director Claire Bolles visited Rekero Primary School to judge the three performance pieces, one from the elephant group, lion group and cheetah group and select the four children, two boys and two girls, that will participate in Twende Porini. pictured left: the winning group from Rekero.
MEP Administrator Elvis Saayoi speaking to the kids about MEP.
The judging panel consisted of representatives from Asilia, The Maa Trust and Kenya Wildlife Trust and we’re happy to announce the elephant group moved on to Twende Porini. The elephant group’s performance piece was in Kiswahili and it was about poaching and the hope that poachers never find success in life. These four children really enjoyed their time at Asilia’s Rekero Camp where Elvis presented about the work Mara Elephant Project is doing in their own communities to mitigate human-elephant conflict and took them to visit MEP collared elephant Hugo.
Elvis enjoying his time at Twende Porini with the kids.
Hugo spotted by the kids and Elvis while out on a game drive.
It’s experiences like these that can change the course of a young person’s life and participation in contests like this are very important for MEP to ensure we are encouraging the future generation of Kenyans to be the leaders on conservation. We thank Asilia for allowing us the opportunity to participate.
The kids pose with Asilia safari guides during their time at Twende Porini.
