Selection of new ASSETS beneficiaries for year 2008. Friday the 7th marked the climax of a 3 week long exercise that saw over 70 students being selected to receive scholarships from the ASSETS eco-bursary fund. This process that started with the whole of the ASSETS team visiting all applicants to assess their families’ ability to pay schools fees for the children ended up with the ASSETS Bursary sub-committee meeting to do the actual selection. This year the meeting was held at Malindi Town Secondary school where one of the committee members teaches instead of the usual forest station conference hall and it lasted for just under 6 hrs. This year, a record 95 students from the 8 ASSETS beneficiary schools applied for bursaries. The very enthusiastic bursary sub-committee has never been as strict in their consideration of applicants as they were this year. This was to ensure that bursaries reach those in most need whilst maximising their input in conservation of Arabuko-Sokoke Forest and Mida Creek. ASSETS has so far secured sponsorship for 5 of these students from AGGREKO, a UAE based Electrical Engineering firm as part of their Social Corporate responsibility. AGGREKO will be supporting these students through secondary school and University. A major task to secure funding to support the rest still lingers, considering the blow suffered by the tourism industry following the disputed presidential elections on December 27th.
My name is Stanley Baya, working as the Co-ordinator of the Arabuko-Sokoke Schools and Eco-Tourism Scheme (ASSETS). I feel privileged to share with you my experience in working in community and conservation at Arabuko-Sokoke Forest and Mida Creek. Perhaps the best way to do this is to share with you what drives me to take up such a challenging task as you will realise community development is indeed not easy especially when you are from that community yourself (a prophet can not be accepted by his own people); I am not suggesting that I am a prophet, that’s not the point, I only mean “familiarity breeds content” I grew up at Gede village, one and half kilometers from Arabuko-Sokoke Forest but I knew very little about it until much later during my college days. Mida Creek was more familiar to me as I had a chance to learn how to fish from my cousins as a child. My job as co-ordinator of an eco-scholarship fund would not have been as exiting without my High school experience when I had to stay out of school for a greater part of the school semester owing to the expense of school fees. One of my most exiting moments has always been when I received a bursary support from World Vision International which enabled me to complete my secondary school education. I later trained as a Primary school teacher and worked in a private school for two years until year 2001 when I joined A Rocha as the ASSETS Co-ordinator. <www.assets-kenya.org> It is while teaching in a private school where the children had more than what they needed that challenged me to think of the other children in public schools whose parents could hardly lay a meal on the table.
In ASSETS, I have realised an incredible combination of two of my greatest passions; helping needy children and environmental conservation. By the time these children graduate from secondary school, a sense of appreciation of the natural environment is often very evident. While others write to express their gratitude for the bursary support, some present themselves in person to do the same and tears are a common characteristic of their joy. This plus their parents commitment in caring for these internationally recognised habitats is indeed the encouragement to press on!
Introducing ASSETS
The Arabuko-Sokoke Schools and Eco-tourism Scheme (ASSETS) is a bold and exiting Programme on the north Kenya coast. ASSETS channels benefits from eco-tourism directly to local children where it is most needed – education – while at the same time conserving some of Africa’s moat precious and rare habitats. A Special Place …..
Mida Creek is a beautiful tidal inlet fringed with mangrove forest. It is a critical breeding ground for many fish and a feeding area for young sea turtles. It is also home for thousands of migrating European and Asian birds during the northern winter including the unique Crab-plover and about 200 greater flamingos.
A people in need…. An ASSET for children and Nature ASSETS helps relieve pressure on people living beside Arabuko-Sokoke Forest and Mida Creek through providing secondary school scholarships funded by eco-tourism in the surrounding area. Eco-tourism facilities provide visitors with a stimulating and memorable experience of nature and encourage local people to value the forest and creek. ASSETS beneficiaries not only receive financial support for their education, but are also involved in environmental education and practical nature conservation activities, such as tree planting and reporting illegal activities. How can you help?
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