Petition Extension
The poaching crisis is escalating at an alarming rate fueled by Chinese demand for ivory. It is being carried out by very sophisticated gang related individuals. As such, WorldWomenWork is planning to concentrate much its efforts in 2012 in helping to tackle this urgent problem. We are therefore extending the time frame for our petition to November 1st in order to maximize its impact. Please share with your friends and urge them to sign the petition. We have to stop this slaughter.
Film Update
WorldWomenWork and Swell Pictures are in the process of producing a film on the crisis and have done and are doing a number of interviews, including Crawford Allen, Director of TRAFFIC, North America, Dr. Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Founder and CEO Save the Elephants, Carter Roberts, President and CEO World Willdlife Fund U.S., Ginette Hemley, Senior Vice President, Conservation and Science. We will be announcing the release date of the film as soon as we have one. Watch this space!
Jewelry designer Vicky Chignall working with Maasai craftspeople create beautiful jewelry designs. WorldWomenWork helps by providing a market for these stunning pieces.
All of us at Elephant Watch and Save the Elephants, have been deeply shocked at the tragic killing of Khadija in Samburu, the last adult female of the SWAHILI LADIES. One by one her whole family had been killed last year and she was looking after her young and 5 orphans. In early June she had been badly wounded. We kept a close watch on her movements and on the 24th, STE with the help of Ian Craig immobilised her when she came into the Reserve, they treated her wounds, put a collar on her and injected a massive dose of antibiotics and vitamins. With difficulty she managed to pull herself up on to her feet, and wandered off slowly. We were able to follow her wandering and she was gradually getting better. For some reason she kept going south towards the “bad lands”. On the night of July 13th in the light of the full moon as she wandered towards the river she was gunned down on the southern boundary line, in a barrage of bullets. We found her faceless with 8 bullet wounds in her body, the collar removed and hidden nearby. Her tusks had immediately been hacked off and taken to a trader.
The Chinese Road Phenomenon and The Last Great Tuskers
Despite the potential benefits for development, a new Chinese-Built Road has brought a number of problems to this once remote area. Incidents of poaching and bush meat hunting have soared since the construction camp was established. Additionally, wildlife is being hit by fast moving trucks.
(Click Here to View Video about the Chinese Road)
Update on the Chinese Road Project and The Last Great Tuskers:
from Lucy King, Chief Operations Officer, Save The Elephants:
With the help of donations like yours, “The Chinese road is being monitored every week and we’re identifying the big tusker elephants which are now few and far between. Amongst the elephants of northern Kenya there are still a handful of huge elephant bulls carrying majestic tusks. They are at the mercy of the poachers and we fear this recent poaching outbreak is the worst news for those old boys.”
An appeal from WorldWomenWork in support of Save the Elephants:
We are living in a world of over population, stressed ecosystems, poverty, greed and extreme wealth. Elephants seem to be taking a last stand. It is unacceptable that these majestic creatures should be gunned down with extreme cruelty to satisfy the greed of the Chinese. A war is taking place, anti poaching patrols are at the mercy of these guns too. It is our duty to give our support to those who are doing everything within their power to stop this useless killing.
Funds are needed desperately. Click to donate support for:
Aerial surveys to spot carcasses and poachers
A car for quick response on the ground to gun shots and alarms from volunteer scouts.
Picture of Prunella the elephant was taken by David Dabbalen on 30th April
I recently received the following report from Iain Douglas-Hamilton in Kenya. World Women Work supports two projects in Samburu National Reserve in northern Kenya – Save The Elephants and the Elephant Monitoring Project – and it is distressing when we have to report endangered animals, especially our majestic African elephants. We try to provide nice elephant pictures but in this case we hope that by highlighting the problem of elephant poaching we can rally support in stopping it.
Iain reports – We have a poaching crisis in the Mt Kenya forests that I thought you should be aware, reported by Associated Press yesterday (Elephants killed near Prince William, Kate cabin). Out of our seven elephants that we collared in December and January, already four are dead. The most recent was the elephant Prunella who died last week, caught in a gigantic snare presumably dying of thirst and starvation just before David and a Kenya Wildlife Service rescue team who arrived on the scene after trekking through unbelievable thick forest and broken country. We are now coping with the emergency in collaboration with the Kenya Wildlife Service, Northern Rangelands Trust, Lewa and the Woodley Mt. Kenya Woodley Trust. We are glad that we were able to help identify this crisis surrounding radio tracking and thank our associates and our very generous donors who paid for the collars and the helicopter borne darting operation. This was greatly facilitated by Ian Craig and Kenya Wildlife Service working with Save The Elephants.
You can also see our video from Samburu National Park – Elephants in Peril. And, of course a contribution to help our work in supporting Iain’s Save The Elephants project is always appreciated!
WorldWomenWork is proud to announce support for the Grevy’s Zebra Trust. Strong community involvement combined with cutting edge conservation techniques has begun to reverse decades of habitat degredation for a critically endangered species, the Grevy’s Zebra.
The Grevy’s Zebra Trust was established to conserve Grevy’s zebra, an endangered species, across its range in collaboration with local communities. Located in Kenya, with extension to Ethiopia, we recognise the critical role played by pastoral people whose livelihoods are inextricably linked to the same landscape.
Save the Elephants has been monitoring elephants in Northern Kenya since 1995 through two key methods: individual identification and monitoring, and remote tracking using collars. STE is also heavily involved with monitoring the illegal killing of elephants in Samburu and Laikipia districts and works closely with the Kenya Wildlife Service to share data and identify poaching hotspots. Unfortunately, not only is poaching still widely evident in northern Kenya, but STE and KWS are starting to see smaller and smaller ivory tusks being confiscated off poachers. Any elephant carrying decent sized tusks these days will almost certainly be at threat from poachers during his or her lifetime. Amongst the elephants of northern Kenya there are still a handful of huge elephant bulls carrying majestic tusks. These large-tusked, old bull elephants carry some of the best genetics of the population and their survival is critical if their successful genes are to be passed onto the next generation.
STE already monitors some of these large bulls but resources are tight and the distances that they have to travel to monitor and collar these bulls are vast. WWW is helping to support STE’s efforts to monitor and track these last great tuskers and to assist with their protection.
The Chinese Road Phenomenon
Since 2007 the wild northern road that stretches from Mount Kenya up to the border of Ethiopia has been under intense construction by a Chinese Road company. The conversion of a rough track to a tarmac super-highway is anticipated to bring faster access to remote areas of northern Kenya helping to improve business links and tourism opportunities. Unfortunately the new road passes directly between three national reserves, Samburu, Buffalo Springs and Shaba. Save the Elephants works in all three of these reserves monitoring and tracking elephant movements to help us understand elephant behaviour and how elephants use the environment. Despite the potential benefits for development, the highway has brought a number of problems to this once remote area. Incidents of poaching and bush meat hunting have soared since the construction camp was established next to Shaba. Additionally, wildlife is being hit by fast moving trucks as there are no speed bumps or traffic calming measures presently in place along the stretch of road passing through the reserves.
Two incidents of elephants and their calves being hit by trucks have been carefully reported on by STE staff but not all incidents will be so carefully tracked due to the time consuming nature of monitoring the road kill reports. WWW is helping to provide resources to STE to enable them to monitor and report on any road kill incidents that involve elephants and any other endangered species. Additionally the funds will support STE’s efforts to engage in a dialogue with the road company and county council officers to get better sign postage and traffic alert measures along the highway. These methods should help to warn drivers that they are entering a wildlife migration zone and that careful driving is required to avoid hitting crossing animals. STE will also continue to report all incidents of poached or injured elephants to Kenya Wildlife Service to assist them with controlling poaching outbreaks in the area.
Just a short update on my recent trip to Kenya and Zambia. WorldWomenWork helped with the installation of a solar system at the Westgate School in Samburu where there has never been electricity to study by at night. This has caused unbounded joy and the comment “It’s like a city.” WWW is also supporting a “Long Term Monitoring Program” with Save the Elephants which thru daily monitoring of elephants researchers are able to understand their movements, behavior and challenges – poaching and people! I went to the coast just south of the Somalian border to the Kiunga Marine Reserve and met WWW scholarship students who are the first girls in their families to go to school and are now teaching their fathers what type of hook and net to use for sustainable fishing. This is an area of abject poverty and the conditions of life are extreme. From there I went to Lamu and met another group who attend the Lamu Girls Boarding School. One of their dreams is to actually see zebra, eles in the wild. In Zambia WWW is funding from the “ground up” the Chiawa Womens Association, on the Lower Zambezie.The focus of this project is economic empowerment. They will be trained to draw and paint their own designs on fabrics creating tablecloths etc. for sale in lodges and hotels. Their excitement is not to be believed. Some of the women have never held a pencil. There is a lot to do! Singer
I’ve just returned from a wonderful trip to Kenya and Zambia. I found many beautiful new items to sell, and I also have exciting conservation news to share.
“Hello! I am in Kenya on a buying trip before meeting friends who are joining me on a fundraising trip for World Women Work, Katy Payne’s Elephant Communication Project in the Congo, and Iain Douglas-Hamilton’s Elephant Research in Samburu. I buy the most beautiful things here.
“I am staying in Samburu at Oria Douglas-Hamilton’s Elephant Watch Camp. During the day we spend hours with the elephants that Iain is studying. The river is their favorite hangout. We watch as they dig with their feet a huge hole in the bank where they splash and cavort on top of each other. Every one is black with mud and doing something different – fighting, playing, touching – such chaos. Their trunks spike up from the water like antennae. The matriarchs take turns coming with their children. They lie down, rub against the bank, throw mud and generally have the most fabulous time.
“I go to the village, which is outside the park where the women from the Beading Project live. World Women Work is helping to fund this project that was started by Oria Douglas-Hamilton, and will sell the things they make. The land is overgrazed, and it is hot, windy and wild. The women are waiting for me.
“First we go to the house of a young girl who has a WWW Scholarship. The house is made of cow dung and mud. The entrance is tiny and I can barely get through it. There are 3 little rooms with a fire in the middle. I am given a stool – a place of honor – the rest sit on cow hides on the floor. We then walk hand in hand across a dry river bed to the thatched hut that is to be the beading center. The women are so beautifully dressed in bright colors dripping in their beaded jewelry. They stand out against the earth tones of the land like bright birds. This is in many ways like Nepal.”
Just a short update on my recent trip to Kenya and Zambia. WorldWomenWork helped with the installation of a solar system at the Westgate School in Samburu where there has never been electricity to study by at night. This has caused unbounded joy and the comment “It’s like a city.” 
WWW is also supporting a “Long Term Monitoring Program” with Save the Elephants which thru daily monitoring of elephants researchers are able to understand their movements, behavior and challenges – poaching and people! I went to the coast just south of the Somalian border to 
the Kiunga Marine Reserve and met WWW scholarship students who are the first girls in their families to go to school and are now teaching their fathers what type of hook and net to use for sustainable fishing. This is an area of abject poverty and the conditions of life are extreme. From there I went to Lamu and met another group who attend the Lamu Girls Boarding School. 
One of their dreams is to actually see zebra, eles in the wild. In Zambia WWW is funding from the “ground up” the Chiawa Womens Association, on the Lower Zambezie.The focus of this project is economic empowerment. They will be trained to draw and paint their own designs on fabrics creating tablecloths etc. for sale in lodges and hotels. Their excitement is not to be believed. Some of the women have never held a pencil. There is a lot to do! Singer
I’ve just returned from a wonderful trip to Kenya and Zambia. I found many beautiful new items to sell, and I also have exciting conservation news to share.
From a letter from Singer Rankin -
fabulous time.