William Holden Wildlife Foundation

Rural Outreach

William Holden Wildlife Foundation logo

As human populations grow in all parts of Africa, encroachment on habitat formerly the domain of wildlife has caused increasing confrontations between humans and animals leading to a crisis for both. In multi-tribal areas of rural Kenya where most people live off of small plots often less than an acre in size, socially the notion of “community” is rare. The one thing that does unite these rural populations is their mutual concern for their children’s education. Thus, in an effort to reach the adults in rural areas we began our efforts with their children. At primary and secondary schools, we add facilities to their campuses by installing fully equipped libraries whose books, maps and charts serve to enhance greatly the government curricula, while also teaching the students, and their parents, about biodiversity and what it means to their lives.

Our lecturers pay regular visits to each of the seven rural schools we serve, teaching the lessons of conservation and preservation compatible with the subjects of their regular studies. For example, they give a lecture in English about how rain is attracted by trees and vegetation so that their parents will not cut down and denude their areas, but instead plant trees to surround their property and produce better carbon / oxygen exchange and attract rain so vital to all living creatures.

Not only did we install newly built libraries with desks, blackboards, books of all kinds including their own curricula books, maps, and charts, but we also built canteens where the students could eat in clean surroundings with food cooked on fuel efficient cookers, and tree nurseries.

In July of 2017 we received the first of four years of a grant from the Annenberg Foundation. These generous funds allowed us to reconstruct five of the rural schools we serve, replacing flimsy buildings, walkways, planted areas, and water catchment reservoir tanks. These schools are the pride of their districts, as well as the parents of the students.

We have also begun teaching soil regeneration / permaculture farming at each school through cultivated plots of land on their campuses, (see Soil Restoration / Permaculture Farming)

Guara Primary School

Mlima Kenya Primary School

Ngenia Secondary School

Nyaringu Primary School

Wathituga Primary School

Ol-Girgiri Primary School

Reteti Primary School