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GVI began working with community-based organisations in the villages of Kidong, Kasaani and Mahandakini, in the Taveta District of Kenya, in November 2006. The villages all lie close to the edge of Kenya's famous Tsavo West National Park and the border with Tanzania, literally in the shadow of Mt Kilimanjaro. Life in the semi-arid Tsavo landscape is tough, the greatest challenges for the communities in this region are are obtaining reliable access to water, acheiving food security and managing human-wildlife conflict effectively.

During the 1970s, following Kenya's independence, the challenging conditions in the Taveta region saw many local communities turn to poaching and other illegal activities as means of generating incomes to support their families.  Nowadays, illegal poaching of wildlife to both supply the bush-meat trade and on occassion the ivory trade, has become a common means of earning the necessary income to feed families and send children to school amongst communities with little development or employment opportunities. However in 2004, many of the villagers from Kidong, Kasaani and Mahandakini embraced the challenge of finding alternative livelihoods and so breaking the socio-economic cycle of dependence on wildlife poaching which can lead to arrest or even cost them their lives.

GVI works in partnership with the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), Kenya Wildlife Service and Taveta District Council to support the three groups of ex-poachers to implement capacity building programs designed to help all three communities successfully engage in sustainable alternative livelihoods. Through the work of WSPA, GVI and our volunteers, local community members have received training and equipment to start bee-keeping, soap making, jewellery production, and to manufacture recycled paper from elephant dung!

All three community groups hope to use the opportunities presented to them to bring benefits to their wider communities and so promote conservation and sustainable development in the area but as they acquire new skills and opportunities they are also presented with new challenges.

Moreover, in 2009 GVI partnered directly with the Constituency Development Fund and Taveta District Council to assist these government departments to acheive broader development objectives in the Taveta region.  GVI volunteers have already completed two construction projects on behalf of the Constituency Development Fund which have contributed directly to the resolution of broader development issues in the Taveta region.  In August of 2009, GVI volunteers alongside the entire village of Kasaani dug a 3.5km trench and then layed a water pipeline to the village of Kasaani - the community of Kasaani now has access to a reliable supply of drinking water for the first time ever! 

Despite the success of these construction and sustainable development projects - there is still a long way to go before the issues of food insecurity, water shortages and human-wildlife conflict disappear from the Taveta region.  The community of Kidong are in the processing of setting up an Eco-tourism Project which will provide all of the members of the Kidong community based organization with sustainable alternative livelihoods.  GVI volunteers have just assisted with the construction of a restuarant for the project and have built a water recycling system which filters grey water and then channels the water to a farm to improve agricultural outputs.  However, the Eco-tourism project is still not complete - tables, plates, bowls, a sink for washing dishes and sign at the entrance to the centre are just  a few of the things that necessary to make the centre operational. 

The community of Kasaani may have solved the issue of obtaining access to water, however, their children still attend a nursery school with no roof and walk up to 10km everyday to attend primary school.  As such, the community of Kasaani have asked for GVI's assistance in constructing a new nursery school and building a primary school in their village which would also serve children from at least two other communities nearby.  The members of the community based organization in Kasaani have been taught by GVI how to manufacture value-added products from honey, including Vanilla Honey Bath Wash and Honey and Almond Sugar Body Scrub.  These products are now providing the villagers with some incomes, however, further work on other sustainable projects is needed to ensure all members of the community are successfully engaging in sustainable alternative livelihoods.  Free range chicken farming is next on the agenda to support this objective, and as such, Kasaani will need to enclosures to keep the chickens at night to protect them from wildlife.

The villagers of Mahandakini are working towards reviving the cotton growing industry, a crop much better suited to the dry conditions but for which there has been no easy market. With their own spinning and weaving equipment, and a workshop to house it, they can provide a ready market to the areas farmers and promote the development of a sustainable industry within their community.  Mahandakini has also taken it upon themselves to solve one of Kenya's key problems - food security.  With an estimated 10 millions Kenyan's on the food security registar in 2009, insufficient access to affordable staple foods has become a recurring national crisis in Kenya.  Mahandakini's solution is simple and sustainable.  They hope to purchase surplus grains at harvest time and store them for resale at the same price during the dry season when restricted availability forces market prices out of reach of many local farmers and their families. This not-for-profit initiative would ensure that everyone can afford to feed their families throughout the year.  All they need to get started is a grain store and the capital to fill it.  This community-based solution could serve as a sustainable example to many other communities within Kenya.

So there is a lot of work to be done and continued development by GVI in the Taveta region needs continued support in the form of volunteers and also financial assistance.  To give you an idea of how every little bit of funding helps, we have listed examples of what your donation could provide these communities with below:

10USD will buy:

·         One bag of cement for a local construction project.

20USD will buy:

·         Fifty sisal poles for a local construction project.

·         Materials to build one desk for a school in Kenya.

50USD will:

·         Buy enough nails to complete an average construction project in a rural village in Kenya.

·      Pay for a skilled local labourer to oversee a two week long construction project ensuring that the project is long lasting and uses local building techniques.

·       Cover the cost of Kenya Bureau of Standards certification for eco-friendly products being produced by one Community Based Organization.

100USD will buy:

            ·         Enough cement to lay the foundations for a classroom in Kenya.

500USD will buy:

·         Materials to fence a community farm to protect crops from incursion by wildlife.

1000USD will buy:

·         A 10,000L water tank.  One 10,000L tank will hold sufficient water to supply a small village in Kenya with a reliable supply of drinking water.

·         You a week on GVI’s Construction and Sustainable Development Project so you can personally contribute to these projects.

The members of Kidong, Kasaani and Mahandakini have already shown their commitment to their new 'ex-poacher' status and are patiently pursuing sustainable alternative livelihoods. The community members have given huge amounts of time to religiously attend educational workshops presented by GVI and have also contributed whatever spare money they have to many of the projects we have undertaken in these communities.  We are now asking you to help them realize their potential for a sustainable and secure future and simultaneously help to conserve the remarkable wildlife of Tsavo, by making a donation towards the construction of critical infrastructure in the Taveta region. This project has already begun making a difference in the lives of both people and wildlife and with a little extra help we can ensure the early achievements become long-term sustainable successes!

To follow our remarkable story, please visit http://www.gvikennya.blogspot.com/ for the best of our Tsavo West blogs!