Soysambu Conservancy

We would like to thank the following people/groups for their kind gesture in donating for Mbogo Primary School:

1. Peter (Juliet Barnes friend)                                                Kes. 3,000/=
2. Westhill Park School- UK                                                    Kes. 35,000/=
3. Victoria Knyvett                                                                    Kes. 53,769/=
4. Manuel and Tunbridge Wells                                            $. 295
5. Alice and Tim Holmes                                                         $. 150
6. Virginia Shawrer                                                                   $. 500
7. Born Free                                                                                 $. 110
8. Safaricare International Foundation                           Desks,table and chairs/playing balls
9. GMU                                                                                           Stationaries/ playing Balls

We really appreciate for your supported donation which created a smile on this needy childrens’ faces.

Thank you very much.

Dear Valerie, Susan, Jenny, Jackie, Marion and Marvin,  Thank you for your donations. They are very much appreciated and we will utilize these funds to our best ability. We are very busy helping with the construction of the dispensary in Elmenteita and the school food programme is just getting going. We only have 63 guards to patrol the Conservancy protecting the people, wildlife and livestock on 48,000 acres. They work very hard long hours and still can’t cover this vast area. We can only operate one vehicle with our limited funds.  Every penny you donate is going to help the Conservancy fulfill its mission and we thank you for your contributions. Kathryn Combes – Director

Written by Zurijanne Kelley, Soysambu Volunteer

On just a casual drive around Soysambu you cannot help but see various herds of cattle with lowered heads slowly ambling along. These indigenous creatures of Kenya come in various hues of white, brown and black, and number just under six thousand across the entire range of Soysambu and Delamere estates.

Initially when Lord Delamere began his livestock enterprise he attempted to use species of cattle which were non-native to Kenya to no avail. After some time he looked at the resources available to him in the neighboring Somalia and had 600 Boran cattle brought to his estate. With the distinctive hump on their backs at the shoulders, Boran cattle are the pride and joy of Delamere estates. They survive on dry matter (their only source of subsistence is grass) which is more than enough for these large creatures whose coat shine at all times of the day.

Three types of cattle are bred here: pure bred, foundation and pedigree. The pride that the employees who work directly with the livestock have here is evident and exceptionally so with the cattle. Delamere estates participates in breeders’ competitions and rightly so with such a fine lot!

These beautiful creatures assist with conservation practices by supplying the conservancy with some funding through the sale and purchase of meat and dairy products as both cattle and wildlife share Soysambu and Delamere estates together (often you can see zebra mixed in with the cattle herds!) So if you’re coming to Soysambu don’t forget to take a picture of the Boran cattle also. They are worth it!

Top Picture: 15 year old cow with the latest of a string of twelve calves over the years. This prized female is pure bred and even donated some of her embryo to South Africa.

Middle Picture: A young 2 1/2 year old stud bull. Pure bred, this stud was entered into a Breeders competition in June 2009.

Bottom Picture: A second young stud bull of 2 1/2 years who was also entered into the June 2009 Breeder’s competition.

Written by Soysambu Conservancy Education and Awareness Officer, Sarah Omusula.

Soysambu Conservancy has been involving Primary School pupils surrounding it in beautification programme for the last three school terms which has been successful and taken positively both by the School Head teachers and Pupils. The exercise has been taking place on the Nakuru- Nairobi Highway from Shiners Boys to Flamingo Camp.

By involving the young children it enables them to grow appreciating the environment and knowing that they are supposed to keep their environment clean and work with it not against it.The Schools involved so far are Kiboko, Kasambara, Echariria, Rhino and the latest joined schools are Kiungururia and Kariandusi primary schools.

After a hard day we gathered at place where we had lunch and a break. Everyone was happy to have been involved in this exercise! To motivate the pupils and teachers they were issued with a certificate of participation where more pupils want to join during the next exercise.

As we just started the programme Soysambu Conservancy will be assisting the participating schools in small projects which come up in their schools. As the programme started recently we want to involve more schools which are willing to take part in this cleaning exercise as far as toll station at Gilgil which is very untidy. This will be a success if more schools can register with Soysambu Conservancy (Call +254 (0) 50- 50622). We also call for donations for purchasing lunches for the kids.

Yesterday, seven volunteers from Africa Ventures plus myself spent the afternoon playing sports at the two primary schools, Mbogo and Kiboko (Swahili for Buffalo and Hippo respectively) on Soysambu Conservancy.

The schools are government run and the students attending are the children of employees from Delamere Estates Ltd and Soysambu Conservancy Ltd- all of whom live on the Conservancy. The schools are humble, Kiboko School was formerly horse stables, and Mbogo School is a series of mud and stone huts with dirt floors. Many of the children walk up to 10km, rain hail or shine to get to school each day, and their smiling faces on arrival are a testament to their eagerness to learn.

While volunteers Hannah and Suquia got a lesson in Swahili from some of the children, Chris and Alex helped the Mbogo teams to a one-all draw in soccer, then I joined in teaching the kids to play Tail Tag- which ended in a tail grabbing battle between two brothers! Mean while at the other end of the Conservancy, Volunteers Georgie, Tor and Kat at Kiboko Primary lead the soccer teams to a nil-all draw.

Soysambu Conservancy Ltd (SCL) helps to support both Mbogo and Kiboko Schools. Recently SCL has facilitated donations of student and teacher desks, along with gifts of exercise books, pencils, globes, maps and more brought by donor groups and visitors to the Conservancy. Re-commencing next year, a donor funded lunch program at Mbogo Primary will be running, providing the children with an extra nutritional boost to help them get through the day. The Conservancy is also hoping to expand the lunch program to Kiboko Primary.

If you would like to help Soysambu Conservancy Ltd’s effort to support Mbogo and Kiboko Schools you can make a donation through this Wildlife Direct blog (see donation box on the right of the screen).

” Clothes swap evening”clothes-swap-nov-11-09-004.jpg
Wednesday November the 11th, London – I hosted a “clothes swap evening” here at home to raise funds for the kids I taught at Mbogo Primary back in May. By the time I reached Soysambu I had already given away the pens, pencils, paper etc that I had brought out from England and therefore had nothing to donate to the children of Mbogo Primary School. I left them with a heavy heart but a determination to try and raise some money for them to buy the basics to keep on learning. I came up with the idea of a clothes swap evening in the summer for my girlfriends, something that was fun, a little bit different and would hopefully generate some money!

Everyone had to bring 3 pieces of clothing and hang them up on arrival. It was £15 a head and the idea was to have a fun girlie evening with wine and canapes, followed by a trying on session! The evening was great fun and a huge success, with everyone going home with at least one “new” item of clothing. I’m now well on track to raising £300 to wire over to Kat and the team at Soysambu by the end of November!

Warning: The blog below contains links to some graphic images…

Poaching for the bush meat trade has long been a problem on Soysambu.

Trespassers break onto The Conservancy and set snares – nooses made from lengths of wire, attached to a tree, bush or fence and hung over animal trails (see image below).

The unwitting animal, be it an Impala, Gazelle, Zebra, Buffalo, Eland etc, walks into the snare and becomes trapped. The more it pulls or struggles the tighter the snare becomes, eventually leading to a cruel death by suffocation. The animal is then collected and either eaten, or the meat sold.

Read More »

Soysambu is in a great location for access to Nakuru, Aberdares & Baringo and only 2 hours from Nairobi on good road. We’ve got 2 operational lodges: http://www.atua-enkop.com/nakuru.php and http://www.sleepingwarriorcamp.com/ and balloon safaris available: http://goballooningkenya.com/

And there are another 2 lodges/tented camps being planned. One of them is a luxury Serena tented camp.

Simon Combes gave amateur artists some tuition at a bush studio set up as part of a fly camp for an artists safari on Soysambu (see Facebook photo album: “Art at Soysambu”).

Any artists that comes to Soysambu can, with prior arrangement, come and see where Simon Combes used to work and learn about what inspired him. Also we’re planning to build another studio, and if artists want to come and work with researchers, we’re developing a field study centre that will have accomodation, called CREATE (Centre for Research, Environment and Arts Teaching on Elmenteita)

There are and will be many more activities available at Soysambu, including camel trekking and a proposed Cheetah Sanctuary.

AS SOYSAMBU IS A NOT-FOR-PROFIT ORGANIZATION, WE ARE ALWAYS LOOKING FOR FUNDS TO GET THESE PROJECTS OFF THE GROUND

If you have any ideas about how to achieve this, or are able to include Soysambu in any fundraising efforts you’re involved in, let us know! Our appreciation will be considerable.

I plan to be based on Soysambu for the second half of 2010 and in the future am planning to balance out my time between the US and Kenya. While I’m there I will be available as a guide/driver for professional artists to come and get reference on a one to one basis. Experience has revealed that putting professional artists together on GROUP safaris has its pitfalls: everyone having the same reference; coordinating a group so that all involved are available at the same time; logistics of coordinating a group of artists who want to paint different things; having enough room in vehicles for camera equipment etc; being landed with a driver who doesn’t understand how to position the vehicle with an understanding of light and composition…..the list goes on.

Also it’s much easier to hire one vehicle and accomodate individuals at short notice.

You’re a wildlife artist, you have one or less opportunity a year to get reference in the field and you’re on a limited budget. Do you need: A tent with a chandelier in it? To pay another professional artist to give you tuition when all you want to do is get as many photos/sketches as possible?

Get in touch if this makes sense to you

Thanks

Guy Combes

Volunteer Shalynn Pack tells of her 4 weeks at Soysambu

Habari!

Hello all, my name is Shalynn Pack and I just returned home to the USA after volunteering in Soysambu. I’ve got one year of university left, studying Zoology and Wildlife Conservation. I came to Kenya this summer to do a 2 month internship with Kenya Wildlife Services at Lake Nakuru National Park. Long story short, that didn’t work out but luckily, I found Soysambu! I moved out here with 4 weeks to spare before my flight home, and I couldn’t have been happier.

The main project I worked on is the monitoring and identification of the Rothschilds giraffe. It’s estimated that there are around 50 giraffe on the Conservancy, but no one knows for sure. To find the total number of giraffe residing on Soysambu, we have to start with identifying individuals and compiling a manual. Honestly, I couldn’t have thought of a better job: watching giraffe all day, getting to know them individually, and thinking up fun names for them. We were able to identify several new giraffe, including 5 adorable new juveniles. With the help of Dr. Julian Fennessy of the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, this research will provide the baseline data for the first long-term study of Rothschilds Giraffe, a species with only 750 individuals remaining worldwide.

We also developed a giraffe habitat assessment for Soysambu Conservancy. Since the drought began, the giraffe have been stripping the bark of the yellow fever acacia trees, a habit that has severely damaged the health of the acacia forests. This project is designed to measure and monitor the extent of the damage over time. The assessment entailed creating GPS plots around the lakeshore and collecting data on the height, circumference, browse height, and level of bark stripping within these plots. In conjunction with the giraffe monitoring data, the assessment could ultimately provide insight on the need to reduce the giraffe population via translocation.

Beyond the field research projects, Soysambu gave me so many unique and exciting experiences. I have so many good memories at the Conservancy! We patrolled for snares on camelback, saw the sun rise over Lake Elmenteita in a hot air balloon, watched a leopard kill and drag off an impala, came too close to a fat African Rock Python, and dodged stinging nettles as we watched colobus monkeys leap from tree to tree. Soysambu is truly a unique place, and I feel so lucky to have been a part of it.

July 21^st, a group of sixty-seven students and seven teachers from Highbridges Academy took a day trip to Soysambu Conservancy. The students spent the day exploring the different areas of the Conservancy including Lake Elmenteita with thousands of pink flamingoes and the pelicans nesting out on the black lava island. They had great luck with their game drives, seeing giraffe, buffalo, gazelles and the rare sight of a wart hog family. The students were also taken on a tour of the old Delamere farm house and saw the statue of 3^rd Baron Lord Delamere – who began farming on Soysambu in 1906.

School trips such as this are a great way to teach the next generation of young conservationists about the importance of protecting this beautiful land and wildlife. We hope the experiences the students of Highbridges Academy had whilst visiting us will inspire them to take action in the fight to preserve Kenya’s beautiful forests and wildlife.