Text by International Intern, Kat Finck There was a time in Sagalla, Kenya, when the rainy season could be predicted. Farmers counted on that regularity and planted their crops of maize, green grams, cowpeas and watermelon according to the cycles of moisture. Now, nobody knows when the precious rain will fall. Sagalla experiences two rainy seasons, one of which occurs between the months of October through December. However, last year, the…
Text by International Intern, Kat Finck “It will be extremely important that everyone arrives on time,” Esther Serem, the project officer for the Mlambeni Ndovu Women’s Enterprise Center, adamantly told the girls a day before departing for Sagalla Lodge. The next morning on December 30th, the first girls promptly arrived at five in the morning–three hours ahead of schedule. For the Sagalla Girls Club —a group of girls that participate…
Text by International Intern, Camille Morales Sagalla Girls Club Meeting “When you empower a girl, you empower the whole world” -Ruth Mumbi Like beautiful monarchs migrating home for the winter, the girls of Sagalla have returned from faraway boarding schools to visit family for the holidays. Esther Serem, the Women’s Enterprise Center’s project officer, tasked Kat and I (the two female interns) with planning three days of fun and empowering…
Text By Kiplangat Evans I just love seeing elephants, their sheer sight, their unrivaled beauty and being the largest and most iconic of mammals on the planet is still a marvelous spectacle to me. They are also the most gentle and beautiful of mammals I have ever come across and they fuel my passion for conservation further while still giving me a sense of purpose and joy in life. …
Written by International Intern, Camille Morales Connor, Kat and I (the three American interns) arrived at camp about a month ago, buzzing with excitement to work with the elephants and bees of Sagalla, Kenya. Little did we know that joining us for the next few weeks would be a renowned Kenyan bee expert: Loise Njeru. We immediately dubbed her the Queen Bee of the group, and just how a queen…
Text by International Intern, Kat Finck Sagalla Village has long been a region of small farmers, growing maize and green grams with no fertilizers, synthetic pesticides or under any irrigation, on tiny plots with a jembe, or hoe. Now, anthropogenic climate change, made worse by large-scale agricultural practices, is having devastating effects on these little farms that dot the South Eastern landscape of Kenya. While large-scale agricultural techniques have become…
Text by International Intern, Robyn Brown Cover photo by Emily Belcher. *** When did you start working at the Elephant and Bees research Centre? I first came to the camp as an intern in February 2019 and I was here for one month. I then went back home to learn how to drive before I started working full time as a beehive fence officer in July 2019. At the beginning…
Text by International Intern, Ester Eriksson Cover photo by Robyn Brown Why would culture be involved in such clearly nature-based initiatives? Why should we be concerned about literature, cinema, visual art, music and theatre when discussing how to save habitats and species? What does it help elephant conservation to be in touch with creativity, expression, and emotions I argue that art has an absolutely vital place in conservation work, and…
Text by International Intern, Ester Eriksson The Elephants & Bees Project is always growing. It now has a greater variety of projects started in different areas of human-elephant conflict and sustainable development, with more farmers getting involved in the beehive fence program and using other tools to reduce conflict with elephants. The most recent development has been the Kajire Community Human-Elephant Coexistence Hub. E&B started with just a small pilot…
Photos and Text by Robyn Brown The school week ends with farm club and this week the activity was mixing soil with students from Class Seven and Eight! The Farm Club was set up in 2016 by Joanna Stutchbury, who was a renowned Kenyan conservationist. It began to thrive in 2017 when Kennedy Lemaiyan, who is the Community Outreach Officer for Save the Elephants, took charge by involving kids in…