In a surprise shift in policy this week, Kenya’s Education Ministry began allowing students from Grade 4, Standard 8, and Form 4 to return to school. They had previously said that all schools would be closed until 2021 and have been closed since March.

Students will return under COVID-19 safety protocols, which include wearing masks and checking temperatures for fever before entering the building. Hand-washing stations are positioned for easy and frequent access, and teachers are expected to ensure that protocols are adhered to. Students without masks will be sent home. Unfortunately, the government has limited capacity to provide masks, so parents are encouraged to purchase reusable ones for their children.

One reason for reopening schools ahead of schedule is to provide adequate preparation time for the next Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exams, which happen March 22-24, 2021, as well as the KCSE exams from March 25-April 16, 2021.

But there has also been concern regarding the social costs of keeping students out of school for so long. For example, the rate of early teen pregnancy has skyrocketed since schools were closed, and is especially high in the area Big Life operates. The Ministry says no girl will be denied her chance to return to school because of pregnancy if she so chooses.

In light of this new shift in policy, Big Life will resume covering the scholarship fees for the students who were already actively sponsored. Big Life has already provided these sponsored students with reusable face masks, and the girls were also provided sanitary pads.

Big Life has also facilitated 11 wifi centers where students in different zones can access online classes and other educational resources. Wifi services will continue to be used by students in the classes that have not been recalled back to school (Class 7, Form 1, 2, and 3, as well as many tertiary level students).

Big Life is also ordering solar reading lamps for students to use at night since a majority of Big Life’s sponsored students come from off-grid and remote areas where there is no grid power.

As needs were assessed throughout COVID-19, it also became clear that some students come from such poor families that basic necessities like food were also a challenge. Thanks to our supporters, Big Life is able to facilitate ordering food for 100 very resource-challenged families.

Thank you to the Capricorn Foundation, Highland School, and our individual supporters around the world for making this work possible.

Photo: Jeremy Goss

Earlier in September, Big Life rangers successfully apprehended and arrested three suspects in possession of a live pangolin. The fact that the pangolin was still alive was extremely lucky, as these animals are sensitive to changes in their environment.

But because of this sensitivity, it turns out that releasing pangolins back into the wild is a very tricky thing to do, and requires a careful and gradual reintroduction. Pangolins are the most trafficked animal in the world and all species are listed as threatened, so making sure they survive any poaching attempt is critical.

To help with this, Big Life has partnered with the Pangolin Project. In the short term, they’ll be providing advice on how to handle case-by-case pangolin rescues. In the longer term, they’ll provide practical training to Big Life’s rangers about this particular species, which requires very specialized handling.

Learning where pangolins are naturally occurring and adapting our ranger patrol routes accordingly to prevent capture is the first step. Training for rangers and vet teams on handling for eventual release by the Kenya Wildlife Service is the second.

Big Life Foundation and KWS rangers in Rombo and Kimana area will be the first rangers trained in pangolin monitoring and data collection, two areas where we already know pangolins are present, although very rare. The data collection will be used to determine camera trap locations and other protection efforts.

The Pangolin Project is a Kenya-wide effort, and has already started in the Mara and North Western province, where pangolins are definitely present and rangers and vets have already been trained. Pangolins have been recorded and even tagged in these areas, a huge step forward for a species so aloof, and equally, so lucrative.

The other piece of the puzzle is the black market, and Big Life’s informer network will be sharpening their eyes and ears to pangolin movements.

The pangolin Big Life helped rescue earlier this month is luckily still alive, and KWS rangers will release it close to where it was stolen following best practices when it is safe to do so. We can only hope for the best and do what we can to prevent these situations in the future.

In the meantime, we’re grateful for the support of our partners at the Pangolin Project and KWS, and to our supporters around the world for keeping our rangers in the field.

Photo: Shaun Mousley

Treating an elephant for an injury is never an easy proposition. But it’s especially challenging when the elephant is a mother with a calf in tow.

A community member on Eselengei Group Ranch noticed the elephant was limping and placed the call to Big Life for help. Rangers were on scene in short order and confirmed what appeared to be a spear wound on its right foreleg in need of medical intervention.

While Big Life rangers waited for the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust-funded vet and Kenya Wildlife Service rangers to arrive from Amboseli, they were joined by rangers from Porini Camp to monitor the situation. Once the vet was on site, they coordinated to use a ranger vehicle to gently separate the young elephant from its mother so that she could be treated.

The entire operation went smoothly, and she awoke quickly, eagerly reunited with her calf, and lumbered off into the bush.

In the midst of all this, however, a fire had broken out on Eselengei that called the rangers away. Thanks to them, the fire was quickly contained.

We’ll continue to keep an eye on the elephant to make sure she recovers fully. It’s all in a day’s work for Big Life’s community rangers in East Africa.

How an avocado farm could be the catalyst that leads to
the demise of the Amboseli Ecosystem

There had been no warning of what was to come, and the machines wasted no time.

Local community members could hear the sound of trees being torn out of the earth, as bulldozers quickly turned 180 acres of natural habitat into bare ground. But what they were really hearing was the sound of a new fight for the Amboseli ecosystem starting.

The reason? Avocados.

The place? A community conservancy in the Kimana wildlife corridor, through which elephants and other animals move between Amboseli National Park and the Tsavo landscape.

We all know that food has to be grown somewhere, and there are already large tracts of farmland in the Amboseli ecosystem. But this farm is different.

This farm was approved in an area that is fundamentally important to Amboseli’s wildlife populations, and is basically an invitation to developers to proceed with the destruction of Amboseli’s remaining natural habitats. This was an act far more deadly than any poacher pulling a trigger. It is symbolic of the biggest challenge now facing wild animals in Kenya: the further loss of natural space to human activities.

The farm was controversial from the start, for many reasons.

It violates two government-gazetted land-use plans, neither of which allow agriculture on the land that was razed to the ground. Disregard for these management plans and the approval of a farm in the middle of a nationally-recognized wildlife corridor would set an extremely dangerous precedent.

Dangerous not only to wildlife, but also to humans. Elephants and other wildlife in Amboseli are the basis for an ecotourism industry that supports thousands of jobs and generates tens of millions of dollars for the local and national economies, all of this ultimately at risk for the sake of the foreign demand for avocados, and other produce. All of which could be grown in any number of other areas of Kenya without critical ecological value.

Local communities were the first to object to the farm but the outcry spread quickly. Following input from a number of stakeholders, as well as evidence of the importance of this wildlife corridor, Kenya’s National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) has since issued a letter of intent to revoke the license for the farm.

This is a huge show of commitment by the Kenyan government to protecting its natural resources, and support for the communities who are doing the same. The importance of this action cannot be overstated. Big Life thanks the Kenya Ministry of Environment and Forestry and NEMA, particularly the Cabinet Secretary and Director General.

However, the avocado farm’s owners have 10 days from September 18 to show cause as to why the development should not be halted, so we are not out of the woods yet. There may be a protracted legal battle ahead.

Meanwhile, Big Life and others in the ecosystem applaud the choice that has been made, one for the continued survival of the unique, UNESCO Biosphere Reserve that is the Amboseli ecoystem.

Photos: Jeremy Goss