Conservation Education
Welcome to our conservation in action programme
Our conservation efforts today will only count if the next generation is invested, engaged and empowered to carry them forward. We welcome 110,000 visitors through our gates annually, and it is our hope that each and every visitor goes home inspired and informed.
As well as offering one of the best safari experiences in Kenya, Ol Pejeta aims to provide opportunities for education and involvement. Visitors will find interactive material and knowledgeable staff at the following places:
Each is free to enter, and well worth working in to your itinerary. Grown ups wanting to get their hands dirty can sign up for one of our unique wild experiences – where you will be actively contributing to our conservation efforts by tracking lions or training our anti-poaching dogs.
For the 25,000 school children we welcome each year, we have launched Conservation in Action programme. This is tailored for students from the age of 4 and above and offers them an opportunity to get behind the scenes with Ol Pejeta staff, and learn about what it takes to protect wildlife. Children can help inspect the chimpanzee enclosure for damages while learning about the plight of our wild cousins or help clean out the endangered species pen and chat to the people in charge of safeguarding the last three northern white rhinos on the planet.
Parents can also sign up their kids to become a Junior Ranger for a day; a specialised program for kids between 4-12 that immerses them into the world of a wildlife ranger.
For more information on our Conservation in Action activities please contact us on info@olpejetaconservancy.org
Ol Pejeta learning
Ol Pejeta Learning is our newest collection of activities and lesson resources for students and teachers. Ol Pejeta Learning is a conservation education resource tool for teachers to use with their groups before, during and after visiting Ol Pejeta Conservancy. The activities offer practical, easy to use, outdoor learning opportunities on ecology, natural biology and conservation.
Topic 1: OUR WORLD
Topic 2 (Part 1): HOW ANIMALS FUNCTION
Topic 2 (Part 2): HOW ANIMALS FUNCTION
Topic 3: HOW PLANTS FUNCTION
Topic 4: THE FUNCTIONING OF SYSTEMS
LEARNING GLOSSARY
PARTNERS IN EDUCATION
The benefits of wildlife conservation must be tangible to even the youngest members of local communities. Ol Pejeta’s education programme supports infrastructural development in local schools; which includes water catchment and storage, the construction of school kitchens, dining halls, classrooms, office blocks, computer and science laboratories, and boarding dormitories. To date, over 9,000 school children across 36 schools have benefited from this partnership with Ol Pejeta. PA-MOJA (formerly Project Kenya Sister Schools) an education NGO based in Canada, and ARES Education – an education NGO based in Kenya, the US, and Canada have been the principal supporters of this programme.
DIGITAL LITERACY
The ARES Education project is a Kenyan registered NGO that has been in place for over 10 years providing quality digital education systems for over 90 schools across Kenya and growing rapidly. Half of those schools are in the Laikipia County region in a close cooperation between ARES and Ol Pejeta. ARES is a turnkey solution that provides a comprehensive range of very high-quality training systems for primary, secondary, and adult learners, coupled with an extensive set of teacher training and curriculum materials. The system runs entirely offline (no internet required), is battery based, and connects to any wireless device with a browser. Equally important – we jointly provide ongoing support to the schools to ensure maximum benefit. Tracking of the annual test results has demonstrated a significant benefit for schools with ARES and those that do not have it yet. Our plan is to expand the ARES coverage county wide over the next few years. You can learn more from this short video. Please consider supporting our efforts through the ARES Adopt-a-School Program!
SCHOLARSHIPS
Pa-MOJA
In addition to this, three Ol Pejeta-supported schools are linked through PA-MOJA’s Butterfly Effect programme. These are: Loise Girls’ Secondary School and Thome Boys Secondary. They are linked with Charles Best Secondary School and Langley Fine Arts School in Canada. Butterfly Effect is an interactive online learning platform where students from Canada and Kenya post and discuss research and project questions. The website empowers them in sharing knowledge, celebrating learning and development of inquiry-based research and critical thinking skills. These enable learners to access and enjoy an exciting and collaborative learning space that is first of its kind globally.
The education programme is also supported by other donors including Hugh Crossley and Sino Africa Hope (infrastructural development in schools), Afretech Aid Society (provision of school supplies, textbooks and equipment, laboratory equipment and computers), the Max Plank Institute and Ji Ai Cho.
The scholarship process is very transparent and consultative and we focus on the needs and performance of some of the students from our underserved parts of the community.