On Tuesday January 31st, 2023 a total of 48 children accompanied by 1 teacher and 1 school social worker, went on an Ecology Trip to the Giraffe Centre.  Each year the Education department at the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife (Kenya) AFEW, allocate places free of charge to school children who would otherwise not be able to take part in such trips. 

 

The AFEW (K) has been supporting Patmos School  for several years  now and many children from the school  have benefitted from being able to go on these educational visits.  

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The Ecology excursion is a special and exciting day’s outing for children. It starts with a trip to the Nairobi National Park and Animal Orphanage, followed by a visit to the David Sheldrick Animal Orphanage, The Ostrich and Crocodile Park in Karen and finally the Giraffe Centre. The tour ends with refreshments and exciting activities such as feeding the giraffes and watching videos on environmental subjects.

 

During these educational visits the children learn about the endangered Rothschild giraffe and wildlife in general as well as about the ecosystems in Kenya.  The children also learn environmental themes such as sustainable development, forest conservation, wetlands protection and waste management. 

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Incorporated in the educational program during the day is information about some of the environmentally friendly projects that can be initiated to promote conservation in schools. 

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Below is a Report about the Ecology and Conservation outing written by the school social worker:

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PUPILS TRIP TO NAIROBI NATIONAL PARK, GIRAFFE CENTER AND MAMBA VILLAGE .

 

Theme: Improving the Participation of Agro-Pastoralists in Climate Change Adaptation, Disaster Risk Reduction, Waste management in schools & our neighbourhoods.

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Through partnership with AFEW KENYA, (African Fund for endangered wildlife Kenya) Patmos school was selected among the schools within Mathare slums to have the pupils participate in a learning trip at Nairobi Orphanage National Park, Giraffe Center and Mamba Center.

The trip aimed at educating the children on Agro-pastoralism in climate change adaption, disaster risk management and waste management in schools & at their neighbourhood and also gave the opportunity to see different wild animals  which was quite an excitement to the pupils.

 

 48 pupils (28 girls, 20 boys) from different grades in age bracket (12 years and above) were identified by their teachers to participate in the trip and were accompanied by a teacher and social worker and two education officers from the Giraffe Center.

 

The trip started at Nairobi National Orphanage Park where pupils managed to see different types of wild animals like Lions, Hyenas, Peacock, leopards, buffalo etc. which was so much fun to the children.  The children were taught the importance of wildlife animals to the country and with the benefits which included, creation of employment and bringing foreign exchange through attracting foreigners to our mother land country. The children were also encouraged to challenge to do tree planting and discourage from deforestation which has a negative impact on climate and leads to reduction of wild animals and hence impacting the country negatively in terms of low rainfall.

The implications of unsustainable patterns of development are nowhere more evident than in the challenges presented by global climate change. The potential impacts cross generational and geographical divides to permeate ecological and human systems alike, while the causes cut to the core of our economies and shake the foundations in all aspects.

 

The scale and nature of the transformation that may be required to adequately respond to this challenge appear to have defied comprehension, but climate change has risen to dominate ways of   disaster risk reduction and drive innovation at unprecedented rates.

 

Through that our pupils were taught ways to reduce, re-use and recycle wastes in schools and our neighborhood as one way of making the environment friendly to all creatures. The children were shown how to use polythene bags and plastics to plant seedlings at the Giraffe Center for high impact on climate & how they should conserve environment in our school, in their households and the entire neighbourhood. The children were also challenged through school management to collect polythene bags especially for milk, rice packs or sugar packs for seedlings planting and this may cause them to be considered for possible another sponsorship trip to go and plant as many seedlings as possible during the DAY OF AFRICAN CHILD CELEBRATION.

Children were also given a hot meal at Mamba Village place which they enjoyed. They were pleased by the exposure  to learn  and were also taken through a small  assessment of the general experience and lessons learnt through the trip and how the trip had impacted them. The children were able to do that in a group discussion and answered the assessment forms.

 

The education officer who accompanied the children congratulated and promised the children to have them back due to their punctuality they were highly disciplined and portrayed a good picture of the school.

The team was given some posters to help the children implement what they learnt and share with other pupils in our school and community.

 

The school administration was also encouraged to assist the pupils to participate on 2023 National Environment Awareness Competition where the top 20 participants will be taken to different areas within the country for a one week trip to learn more and interact with pupils from other different schools.

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​Patmos School is extremely grateful to Mr Victor Ochieng, Ass. Conservation Officer in the Education Department of AFEW (K) for organising and facilitating this trip for the children.

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To find out more about AFEW (K) please visit their website:

www.giraffecentre.org 

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