Community Development Projects
Over the years, Gamewatchers Safaris and Porini Camps have implemented numerous projects to support our partner communities. We invite you to help us through your contributions.
Empower students and community to use ICT based learning
Digital Smart Learning Project
We believe that the youth are the future of conservation, in our country and continent, and as a company, we’re committed to supporting the landowner’s youth and communities in the areas we operate through education support, digital learning, exchange programs, and in sustainable micro-enterprises. Despite the downturn in tourism due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we remained fully committed to our community projects in line with our company mission and significantly increased our support to the communities. We did this through partnerships with many of our generous and loyal Porini guests and like-minded organizations. We live in a digital world and if our community youth can effectively ‘speak this language’ and operate in this space it offers the chance to get better jobs, create new opportunities as well as being more effective in their lives and not be limited by their classroom, teachers, or textbooks.
Empowering communities to generate an alternative income while conserving bees.
BEE KEEPING Micro Enterprise for Youth & Women
The objective of the project is to support the youth and women, raise conservation awareness while generating an alternative income for the group, improving livelihoods, and conserving bees. We are working with youth & women groups around the conservancies we are involved in, as the youth have the highest rates of unemployment and the women are also more vulnerable and need to support their families often with limited resources. The project is focused on sustainable, scalable development that empowers an ever-increasing number of local communities with income-generation and food security.
Addressing the frequent absence from school among female students due to the unavailability of sanitary pads.
Empowering Girls to Stay in School with PadMad
As the sun rises over rural landscapes of Kenya, a silent struggle unfolds in the classrooms of remote schools. For many young girls, their education journey is disrupted by the natural rhythm of their bodies. Absences during menstrual cycles, lasting anywhere from three to seven days, create a stark disparity in learning opportunities between genders. C As part of our commitment to helping improve the communities around conservancies we partnered with PadMad, a social enterprise based in Kenya keen on addressing period poverty, and donated reusable sanitary towels to over 170 girls and boys of Endonyo Narasha Primary School in Narok county, on International Women’s Day 2024.
Curbing the Impact of increasing Droughts
Provision of Water to Selenkay Villages
Access to water for community members surrounding the Selenkay Conservancy has become increasingly difficult due to increased incidents of drought caused by unpredictable rain patterns and less rainfall in the area in the last few years. As part of our pledge to support the communities that we lease conservancy land from, we have improved access to water for two of the villages that neighbour Porini Amboseli Camp. We have provided each of the villages with one 2,000 litre water tank and organised for water to be delivered to them twice a week.
Alleviating the financial burden of childrens’ education
Ol Kinyei & Selenkay Education Support
This important program is focused on raising funds with 100% going to supporting school fees for children, alleviating some of the financial burdens of the children’s education. As well as paying termly fees, parents incur the additional costs for uniforms, books, school activities and in many cases, school rehabilitation projects – despite the fact that primary education in Kenya is free. These hardships often result in under-educated youth with little hope for healthy careers. The Bursary Fund assists students in covering essential education-related costs and ensures that they are able to complete important stages in their education, which is a crucial step in guaranteeing a solid career path.
Creating Career Opportunities for Wildlife passionate Youth
The Koiyaki Guiding School Scholarship Fund
The Koiyaki Guiding School was established in 2005 in order to provide a tourism training institution for the Maasai. The school is located in the Naboisho Conservancy and takes in 26 students per year. The aim of the Scholarship Fund is to create opportunities for promising youth who show a passion for wildlife and conservation, but who may not be able to afford the school fees. Staff at Porini Camps come almost entirely from the local community. As the company continues to expand it creates more opportunities for community members to be hired by us. Participation in the course improves employment opportunities for local community members, as well as encouraging long-term conservation efforts for the Maasai Mara and other Kenyan ecosystems.A
Help communities capitalize on consistent milk prices through cold storage facilities
Solar milk cooling project
One of the Women’s groups in Ol Kinyei Conservancy in Maasai Mara now has a solar-powered milk cooling plant. Livestock is vital to our Maasai community, part of their culture, and heritage, and also important to support and sustain their livelihoods. However unfortunately as there hasn’t been adequate cold storage when there is too much milk they get very poor prices, can’t store it and so leading to wastage. In addition, as they are selling it individually they don’t have access to the higher prices and more consistent market offered by the commercial milk companies in Kenya.
Fostering a more dignified Learning Atmosphere
School Sanitation Project
This project addresses the provision of adequate toilet facilities in schools which is a much-neglected but vital issue for school children in rural Kenya.The simple fact is that Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) conditions in rural Kenya are a big problem. Unfortunately it remains a silent problem as cultural attitudes make it difficult to discuss the subject of toilets and hygiene at policy and community level. As a result, we have a sanitation crisis that silently gnaws at school welfare and education. In fact one of the schools we had a toilet block put in was about to be closed down by the government due to not meeting basic sanitation standards for the kids. We have with generous support from our longtime friend Mr Anaban Ghosh put in toilet blocks at Iloirero and Olanti schools in Selenkay and ilmonchin school in Ol Kinyei.
Addressing Human-Wildlife Conflict with lion proof cattle bomas.
Porini Boma Strengthening Programme
Predator-proof bomas (enclosures) involve reinforcing the traditionally constructed boma with chain-link fencing, treated wooden posts and secured gates so as to prevent predators from entering the Maasai village and livestock enclosures. The reinforced bomas ensure that predators that target their natural prey are no longer threats to the community. This means that the predators located within our conservancies are not going to become victims of revenge killings. The predators are also less likely to fall prey themselves to poachers as they will seldom stray outside of the conservancies in search of easy meals.
In partnership with Earth Acre we are pursuing Biodiversity & carbon credit revenues to bring greater benefits to community landowners and wildlife habitat.
Biodiversity & carbon credit activities
The conservancy and landowners can benefit from carbon credits and planned biodiversity credits – mechanisms designed to channel funds to landowners who preserve natural biodiversity hotspots and carbon storage from intentional interventions. Carbon polluters, for example, can offset their greenhouse-gas emissions by “purchasing” emissions that are reduced or saved by other members of the scheme. While carbon credit markets are well established, the biodiversity credit market is still nascent but seen as critical and of the greatest value to a more resilient, healthy, and secure world.