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Supporting Conservancy Communities

We support community members to mobilise themselves to improve their quality of life and to be more resilient in the face of climate change and economic hardship.

Towards Sustainable Livelihoods in the Mara

We are on a journey towards sustainable livelihoods in the Maasai Mara in partnership with The Maa Trust, a non-profit organisation working with local communities in the Maasai Mara to drive sustainable development initiatives. Our collaboration focuses on four areas: Women and Girls’ Empowerment through the women and girls’ leadership councils and rights advocacy and awareness. The third area looks at economic empowerment, especially the critical need to develop resilient alternative livelihoods for household income diversification. Additionally, we support basic health, focusing on sanitation and hygiene by supporting capacity building of students and teachers under the Maa Champion Clubs to drive better health and sanitation outcomes.

Integrated Livelihood Support for Kalama and Sera Communities

We are supporting communities in Kalama and Sera Conservancies in Samburu through their umbrella body, Northern Rangelands Trust, to increase the resilience of marginalised households to climate change-related shocks through diversified livelihoods and capacity building.

Our partnership aims to secure alternative livelihoods for women, youth, and people with disabilities, and this will reduce pressure on rangelands. The project also facilitates financial literacy and entrepreneurship training and provides the beneficiaries with affordable loans through a revolving fund to ease access to start-up capital.

Basecamp Maasai Brand

Since its inception in 2003, the Basecamp Maasai Brand (BMB) has been steadfast in its mission to empower the Maasai women of Talek, Maasai Mara, by harnessing their rich beading tradition, enabling them to earn a sustainable income.

Today, the project boasts a membership of 198 women, all of whom are dedicated to producing and selling traditional Maasai handicrafts. Thus, BMB preserves the Maasai cultural heritage and also provides a source of pride and financial independence for the group members. The project location is the Enjoolata Centre, and much of the project sales are possible through the free hosting of shops at the Saruni Basecamp properties and an online store.

Mara Girls’ Programme: Keeping Girls in School

Our partnership with the Maasai Mara Wildlife Conservancies Association, an umbrella body for conservancies in the Maasai Mara, responds to an endemic challenge of teenage pregnancies in the Maasai Mara.

Our partnership under the Mara Girls’ Programme entails supporting stakeholders in the education sector to implement a government policy for reintegrating adolescent mothers into school and providing socio-psycho support to the affected girls. Additionally, the programme covers student mentorship to reduce cases of early pregnancies. The partnership with the Association also focuses on strengthening child protection structures in the Maasai Mara.

Kiunga’s Gear Exchange Programme: Enhancing Conservation and Livelihoods

The Kiunga programme, part of our collaboration with the Northern Rangelands Trust Coast (NRT Coast), seeks to promote sustainable fishing while optimising processes for enhanced livelihoods by issuing sustainable fishing gear. In line with the project design, NRT Coast provides cold storage equipment to fishers to prevent post-harvest losses while the fishers exchange their illegal beach seine nets, which we help them purchase to forestall overharvesting.

The project also supports the training of five youths from five fisheries and beach management units in Kiunga on fish catch data collectors and are currently assisting in data collection to monitor the progress of fish catching after the successful implementation of the programme.

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