The Maarifa Foundation

Education for Conservation

“In the end we will only conserve what we love, we will only love what we understand and we will only understand what we are taught”

– Baba Dioum

inspiring, engaging and elevating
tomorrow's nature custodians

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Education for Conservation

It takes a Global Village...

Through Education for Conservation today, we invest in tomorrow’s custodians. We empower students with knowledge and opportunity and cultivate a deep-seeded passion for wildlife and wild places. We deliver locally relevant, fun and engaging programs for children in Kenya and Australia, and provide opportunity to put their knowledge into practice and to share their experiences with global classmates.

What we do

In Kenya, in the Masaai communities bordering significant wildlife areas, we assist with educational resources for students most in need. However it is our suite of Education for Conservation activities and deliverables such as in class lessons, field trips and the building of environmental libraries that we are really helping people and planet.

In Australia, our unique global ‘twinning’ program connects Aussie students with students from Kenya, who are wanting to achieve their own local environmental goals whilst also ‘paying it forward’ to help their Kenyan classmates. In Australia we tailor make programs for students from Prep to Year 12, concentrating on two main themes: Conservation Action in the Urban Environment (with a particular focus on creating habitat for wildlife, koala conservation and sustainable living); and Good Global Citizens and Cultural Awareness (looking at different ways of life, different environmental challenges, what are the synergies and how can we all contribute to our global community and shared planet).

Why Maasai community Kenya

Community wildlife conservancies are the life blood of Kenya’s rich biodiversity. These conservancies are lands owned by the Maasai, otherwise cleared and grazed, but instead, set aside for conservation and low-density eco-tourism. They provide integral ecological support for the National Parks and Reserves. They importantly also provide financial benefit to the local Maasai community. Through education that fosters sustainable living and protection of these environmental areas and the natural resources they sustain, we are helping to enhance the livelihoods of the local people which in turn helps the wildlife that rely on these areas for survival.

By engaging the younger generation in our Education for Conservation initiatives and providing assistance in paying school fees, provision of uniforms, shoes and solar lights for children living on the borders of these conservancies, we help ensure they receive a proper education, we facilitate a passion for wildlife and conservation and we demonstrate a global gratitude to these communities for creating these biodiversity rich wildlife havens!