African Impact

Hi Everyone

As you all know, things in Kenya have been really crazy since the elections, with a lot of counrtywide unrest. Due to this, the usual structure of our medical and community project was disrupted and our project involvement became limited to only the orphanages in Limuru.



Until last Sunday, things had been calm in Limuru, where our volunteer cottages are. Around lunch time we were faced with over a 1000 refugees at the nearby Tigoni police station and the Red Cross Centre in Limuru. The refugees had been displaced due to the political unrest. On Monday, we went to check out the situation and established that it would be safe for us to send our volunteers in to help at both places.

Monday morning we spent at the Red Cross Centre, sorting clothes and helping to dress those that had nothing, as well as cooking lunch for the 500 refugees, helping with registration etc. In the afternoon, we cooked rice for 800 (at least) refugees at the police station. They have spent most of their time this week at the police station opposite Brackenhurst, helping with the preparation and distribution of food (which is usually CRAZY!!), playing with young children, and helping out wherever else there is need.


This week, we have felt it most important for our volunteers to respond to this immediate crisis in our area, and they have been happy to do so and have done a wonderful job. We have been told that these refugees are expected to be there for at least the whole of the next week. However, we would like to give the medical volunteers the option of going to the hospital from next week again.

The situation in Kenya seems to have calmed down and we feel like it is safe to drive anywhere. There is still tension though, and we will not send the volunteers into the slums until this has completely settled down.

I hope that gives you all a good picture of our situation. You can be very proud of the vols here. They have really come together to help the people in need and have done a great job!!!

Hope you are all well!!

From Tesni
(Kenya Project Manager)

Sir Ranulph Fiennes at the release site

Phyre, Kenge and Ashanti explore their new surroundings

The Independent, known as the Indie is a UK national daily newspaper with a readership of around 250,000 per day.
Here is their report on our lion rehabilitation programme from last week...

Walking with lions: How captive-bred animals can be returned to the wild

Swallowing his fear, Richard Grant braves a very close encounter with big cats

Published: 29 November 2007

It seems dreamlike, impossible. Armed with a stick and a few instructions ("Be relaxed, stand your ground, never show fear or panic...") I'm walking through the African bush with four young lions. Shoulders rolling, tails low, they look so menacing and magnificent, and so utterly capable of turning me into lunch.

This fear cannot be allowed into my mind. It will show in my body language and the lions will see it. They were born in captivity, reared by their handlers to think of humans as the dominant members of their pride. But they are opportunistic carnivores, and have an unerring ability to detect weakness and single out the easy target in a herd or group.

Two lions bound ahead, wrestling each other. Walking towards them, entranced by their play, I lose track of the dominant female as she drifts off then circles back. "Watch your back!" one of the handlers, Marvin, calls out. I turn. The lion is stalking me, head lowered, with that predatory look that the handlers call "cheeky".

I stand my ground and say, "No!" while Marvin distracts her. The look goes out of her eyes and she comes past me at a slow, nonchalant amble before flopping on the ground. "Has anyone ever been hurt doing this?" I ask. "Just the occasional scratch," replies Marvin. "You can pet her if you like." Following his instructions, I approach from the tail end, talking to the lion in firm but soothing tones, and start rubbing her vigorously on the back and sides. You don't stroke a lion gently. Their skin is eight times thicker than ours and a light touch can be annoying, like a fly on human skin. When she turns to play-bite my hand, I scratch on the ground with the stick to distract her. I give her belly a good rub and she stretches out, making a contented groan.

There are two places in Africa where you can walk with lions and both are in Zimbabwe, a country with the world's highest inflation rate, 80 per cent unemployment, and severe shortages of food and fuel under Robert Mugabe's controversial rule. I had misgivings about going there, but I didn't get so much as a hostile glance and I felt glad to be supporting the tourist industry and the Zimbabwe-based African Lion and Environmental Research Trust (Alert).

Alert is a non-profit organisation which arranges the lion walks and it is championed by such supporters as Sir Ranulph Fiennes. It also works tirelessly for lion conservation, employing local people in the process.

Since 1975, African lion populations have declined faster than any other species on the continent. Illegal hunting, loss of habitat and disease have been the main factors. A 2004 report by the African Lion Working Group puts the lion population on the continent as low as 16,500 and decreasing, with many living in isolated, inbred and doomed populations.

Alert's main aim is to breed lions then release them into the wild. This was the idea of its founder, a Zimbabwean called Andrew Conolly, who inherited some lions and motherless cubs when he bought the Antelope Park game preserve near Gweru in the Zimbabwe midlands, 20 years ago. With his wife, Wendy, he started walking the cubs in the bush.

"It was amazing to see their hunting instincts develop," Conolly says. "It wasn't something they needed to be taught. All they needed was the opportunity."

Andrew is missing his left arm. It happened when he was still learning about lions and long before he founded Alert. One night he went down to his lion enclosure, acted "overly familiar" with them and was probably lucky to lose just his arm. However, he still loves them for the indomitable predators they are. If anything, it strengthened his determination to work for their future. But he knew it wouldn't be easy.

Others had previously tried introducing captive-bred lions to the wild, almost always failing. The reasons were fourfold: individuals were released instead of prides; they weren't given the time and opportunity to hone their hunting skills; they were too habituated to humans; and they had no experience of competing with species such as hyenas.

Alert, in conjunction with a team of scientists, has come up with a four-stage programme to help to rectify these issues. During stage one, the cubs are taken from their mothers at three weeks. This may sound cruel, but mother lions are used to losing cubs, mainly because incoming males often kill all young under the age of one when they take over a pride, to bring the females into heat. Both in the wild and in captivity, these mother lions return to normal social activity within a few hours of losing their offspring.

After removing the cubs, Alert staffers bottle-feed and play with them, introducing them to meat, providing affection and discipline, and, at six weeks, beginning a regime of walks. It's during this period that tourists can help to walk the lions, their $100 fee helping to fund the programme.

For me, walking with the cubs during this phase one stage started to feel familiar and comfortable. I learnt that the lions are lazy. Sometimes you'll only get 20 paces before they flop down. We may associate lions with courage but the cubs are afraid of water, heights, shadows and most living things that move. The main reason for the walking programme is to build their confidence in the bush and to allow their hunting skills to develop. They practise on each other and sometimes on you, laying ambushes and sometimes bounding towards you in a kind of play-charge, at which point you have to raise your arms, say, "NO!"

Like domestic cats, they are much better at climbing up trees than climbing down. They hate being pinched the back of the thigh. Their tongues are astonishingly abrasive, designed to scrape animal flesh from bone.

As the cubs grow older, human contact is reduced to a minimum; instead, the lions are let out at night to hunt. By the age of two, they are killing nearly all their food, operating as a pride, and are ready for stage-two release. This involves transferring a pride into a semi-wild ecosystem of no less than 500 acres; the lions are expected to sustain themselves by hunting. Then they'll be moved into a wilder stage-three area inhabited by hyenas, where they are removed from all human contact. It's the cubs born during this stage – reared by a pride in the wild, with all their natural fear and wariness of humans intact – which can then, it is hoped, undergo a stage-four release into national parks and other protected wild areas.

Until I arrived, the Alert programme had not yet progressed past stage one, but eight other African countries had expressed interest in replenishing their lion populations this way. So it is on a hot sunny morning that I join about 80 people at the game reserve near Turk Mine, Zimbabwe, to watch the first stage-two release of lions into the fenced semi-wild ecosystem. Emotions are running high. "This has never been done," Andrew tells me. "No one has ever released a captive-born pride into the wild before."

"They look ready," says David Youldon, chief operating officer of Alert. The seven lions, five females and two males, pace their enclosure. The big male, Maxwell, has been in a fight with Phyre, an aggressive female, and both lions bear wounds on their faces. "Not so good for the cameras but normal," David tells us. "It's a hard, violent life being a lion." Sir Ranulph Fiennes, there to lend support, pulls back the gate's release bar and the seven lions pad out into their new 1,000-acre world. The crowd wishes the lions good hunting. Two tough-looking male handlers sob.

Three days later, the news is not good. Phyre and Maxwell are still fighting and the pride hasn't made a kill. It's been a week since they've eaten. Then on day four, the lions bring down an eland, and it seems from all the blood on her face that Phyre did most of the killing. "My baby!" says David, emotionally. "I'm so proud of her it's ridiculous." Two days later they bring down a warthog. The lions are doing as well in their new surroundings as anyone had dared hope. Perhaps the future of the African lion is not as fragile as it seems, after all.

Lion walks are available at Masuwe Safari Lodge (www.lionencounter.com) and Antelope Park (www.antelopepark. co.zw). For more information and to make a donation, contact alert@africanencounter.org A version of this article appears in the December edition of High Life, the British Airways magazine

Ania Perez, age 29, from Spain
Q: Did you feel your orientation was effective? If not please explain why and feel free to put forward any suggestions that you may have.
A: There was fully effective orientation on arrival and I’ve had all the information needed during my whole stay, perfect!

Q: What were some of the highlights of your placement with us?
A: Vilanculos itself, being in touch with local people and local staff everyday, having the chance to be here at the beginning of the school project, being able to build something with my own hands, the camp… All of it!

Q:How has living in Africa for this period influenced your perspectives and outlook on life?
A: I’ve loved this town and this part of Africa. It has been a completely enriching experience in all senses. I will certainly keep trying to visit more places down this side of the world. And I am much more patient now.

Q: Did you have any concerns before traveling to Zimbabwe? Can you suggest anything more that we could have done to ease these concerns?
A: Current news at home regarding the situation in Zimbabwe is not reflective of how it really is here and I think perhaps volunteers need to be reassured that you are very removed from any sort of trouble here and will only really be affected by a lack of supplies and the occasional power cut but nothing more serious than that.

Q: Did we provide you with enough information on arrival for you to feel confident in your new environment and role as a volunteer?
A: Always felt confident and safe with all the staff that we worked with and really trusted that we were looked after well and well informed.

Q: What were some of the highlights of your placement with us?
A: Helping to build houses in the village for people who were unable to build themselves or didn’t have family around to help out. This was incredibly rewarding and it’s great to know that there is something standing in Dete that I had a hand in building. Camping in the national park was also really great fun and seeing a caracal on our night drive in the park was very special.

Q: At any stage during your time on the program did you feel unsafe?
A: Not once always felt looked after and trusted that all the people we worked with would look after us in any situation as they were well trained and experienced.

Q: How has living in Africa for this period influenced your perspectives and outlook on life?
A: Has made me real appreciate what we have and can live without. Miombo is such a quiet and relaxing place and the people there work so hard for very little but still do it with a smile. It is a beautiful country and will definitely want to return to see more of it.

Q: Could you please explain your true feelings and thoughts about this Program? What do you think you gained from your volunteer experience?
A: I think I gained a great deal from both the project and by just being in Africa. I saw such an abundance of wildlife that you can only dream about seeing back in England. All the people we came in contact with were so warm and giving even though they live in very difficult times. All the staff at Miombo were fantastic and made the experience what is was and I can’t imagine the place without any one of them.
The program itself is very worthwhile and gives volunteers the opportunity to see such a different way of living and appreciating life. Everything we do whilst on the program is so worthwhile and has taught me a lot about Africa and the wildlife.

Hi Everyone

Just a quick note to say that African Impact Livingstone now has its own Facebook group which you're welcome to join as a past, current or potential volunteer for updates and anecdotes along the way!

Have a great weekend wherever you are in the world!

Best wishes

Sarah

I wanted to drop you three a quick note of thanks. Last week was by far one of the best experiences of my life.
I have traveled extensively both personally and through work - and I have never come home after a trip with the feeling that I have this week. The whole experience has made me look at my city and life in a whole new way.

I expected to help out in a classroom for a few days… and that was about it. I didn't think I was going to have any effect on the kids or them on me since I only had a week there. I was totally wrong. I was so touched by the kids enthusiasm and innocence. Add that on top of my experience with home based care, family coaching, night shift, family support, etc….. I was floored by the experience.

It has been really hard to come back to work and plan multi-million dollar programs when I know that the kids in Zambia need basic medical care and food. I have signed up with a few volunteer projects locally starting tomorrow - to see if I can find as rewarding an experience close to home.

The relationships that you have within the Livingstone Community are just astounding. And, the impact that you are making in peoples lives is unreal. I am so impressed with your organization of volunteers and your complete dedication to the projects. You truly are amazing.

I feel honored to have been part of this group and I look forward to returning (with a bberry that works so I can stay longer …. hahah….) very soon.

Thanks again.
Talk to (and hopefully see you) soon.

Kate Stluka
New York

Marleen is originally from the Netherlands and joined us as a volunteer 3 years ago. She has since spent time managing our community programs in Livingstone, Zambia, and has spent the last few months setting the foundations for our community and conservation work in St Lucia. [Marleen is on the left in the pic]

Here is this morning's update from Marleen:

Hi guys,

Sorry, a bit busy here, and haven't done a daily diary for last week. But with all the developments here, I thought that, instead of giving you a day-to-day account, I'll just give you the important points:

- Everyone is happy on the project at the moment :) (By the end of today, we'll have a group of nine volunteers, which is an exciting number for such a new project!)

- All the vols we have at the moment are on the Orphan Day Care/HIV Education project, so we're now going to the Day Care Center every morning, which is great.

- We started our HIV/AIDS Education Course yesterday. We are using Pastor Zulu's "building," (which is more of a rural hut) and invite people from the community to come and join us. We seem to have people lining up to sign up, which is great. We are using an adjusted version of the syllabus they made in Livingstone, and we go through all the material in six sessions of two hours - three times a week. I think it's an amazing thing to do, and I think the volunteers are all really happy to participate in this. I would like to start giving shorter courses at schools soon as well.

- We also started additional afternoon projects - we are painting a little clinic, making bricks for re-building the whole Day Care Center, and joining a Home Based Care Group. All these activities are new, but seem to be running well.

- Annabel Vere, who was our first volunteer here, is coming back to help us out for a few months. She is very passionate about, and brilliant with the community projects, and will be a great asset to them, especially in this developing stage. She's arriving in a couple of weeks and we're looking forward to having her back!

That's it for now

Marleen

We're proud to display the top photo as the winning shot for the month of October from our St Lucia conservation education through photography project! Annabel Vere was one of our very first volunteers at this pioneering project, and here are some of her thoughts on her experience....

Q: Were you given sufficient training in terms of instructions for the tasks and duties you were involved in? If not how could we improve our training and in what areas?
A: I felt that I had the freedom to do my own thing which I believe worked effectively

Q: What were some of the highlights of your placement with us?
A: The people are amazing, the backdrop astounding – the combination leaving you speechless with a smile!

Q: Could you please explain your true feelings and thoughts about this Program? What do you think you gained from your volunteer experience?
A: I gained knowledge of how Zulu rural villages are. I learned a lot about African wildlife, its needs and dangers. I learned about how to use my camera properly and how to photograph animals. I learned about the world heritage sites in South Africa and made lots of gorgeous friends!

Kerry James and Rachael Lonsdale both joined our Victoria Falls lion rehabilitation & community development project as volunteers recently, and here is some of their feedback. This is particularly interesting for any of you who might have concerns about traveling to Zimbabwe for your volunteering experience!

Kerry's feedback:
Q: Did you have any concerns before traveling to Africa? Can you suggest anything more that we could have done to ease these concerns?
A: I was worried about the current situation in Zimbabwe which has not been expressed well on English TV... there really is no danger here!

Q: What were some of the highlights of your placement with us?
A: The lions! Opportunity to go to Antelope Park, Rhino walk, Ellie rides and horse back safari.

Q: At any stage during your time on the program did you feel unsafe? Please explain
A: No

Q: Could you please explain your true feelings and thoughts about this Program? What do you think you gained from your volunteer experience?
A: I’ve really enjoyed my time on this project, I was able to spend a lot more time with the lions than I thought I was going to. I feel I’ve gained a lot from this experience and hope my input has been of help to the project. I look forward to finding out how all three sets of cubs get on in the future.

Rachael's feedback:
Q: What were some of the highlights of your placement with us?
A: The biggest surprise and most brilliant part for me has been working with the lions in such a close-knit team. Not only have I learned more than I ever expected about the animals and their habitat, I’ve also made some brilliant friends and feel as though we’ve all helped to make a difference. Working in the community has been absolutely fantastic and I’ve been proud to be associated with the program. Utterly unforgettable.

Q: How has living in Africa for this period influenced your perspectives and outlook on life?
A: It’s been so interesting coming to Zimbabwe and seeing the truth behind the political farrago and meeting the people behind the headlines. It cannot but inspire you with humility, huge admiration for those keeping on, and the value of family and community.

Q: Could you please explain your true feelings and thoughts about this Program? What do you think you gained from your volunteer experience?
A: It’s just been brilliant – not only have I had an amazing experience myself, I also feel as though I’ve made a worthwhile contribution. To give something back to a place that has given you so much is a real privilege.