By Sophie Birkett | Charitable Trust manager
Working in partnership with Tsavo Pride, GVI assisted a Mahandakini community conservation organisation to set up and establish a community library which will provide access to information and improve employment opportunities for the local community.
For the past six years GVI have been running community development expeditions in four villages located close to Tsavo West National Park and the Tanzanian border. The area is home to a variety of wild animals including giraffes, elephants and zebras as well as innumerate species of birds. As is becoming increasingly common throughout Africa, where there are wild animals there is illegal poaching activity. The focus of our work in this area is to assist communities to generate income through alternative and sustainable livelihoods and as such promote conservation of the area.
In February this year, 8 GVI volunteers spent a week working in the small, dusty village of Mahandakini with a local community conservation group. The Mahandakini Network for Animal Welfare and Rights is a community based organisation which aims to promote conservation efforts in the area. Group members include former poachers and those involved in the bush meat trade who now want to work towards protecting wildlife and promoting conservation. The group are incredibly motivated and have so far built a workshop and grain store (to improve food security in the area) and make a range of products which they sell to generate income under the Poachers2Protectors label. One of the aims of the group is to improve employment opportunities for the youth in the area to prevent them from returning to illegal poaching activities. Furthermore, they want to improve access to information for everyone in the community. This has successfully been achieved through the establishment of the new community library.
GVI volunteers spent a week assisting the group to set up the library in partnership with Tsavo Pride. The group received around 200 books which were donated. Our first task was to catalogue, categorise and organise the books onto the two bookshelves in the library. Once completed, volunteers trained group members how to do the same and the importance of keeping the library organised. This was followed several workshops on how to handle, care and repair books, how the library could operate, how to promote the library, what activities could be run from the library and how to get as many people as possible to come and utilise it.
The workshops have given the group a foundation to work from as to how to operate the library, how they can market, advertise and promote the library, and ideas as to how the group can generate income through the use of the library and various activities that could be run there.
“After only a few days of workshops with GVI, we now have a lot of good ideas about how we can run our library. This library is an amazing resource for the community and will benefit adults and children and ultimately aid the conservation of our home.” (Daniel – Chairman of Mahandakini Network for Animal Welfare and Rights)
GVI continues to work towards its long term objectives to promote sustainable alternative livelihood options and conservation in the Tsavo West area.
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