Giraffe Centre

05June2019

Live and Let Live

What comes to your mind when you hear that phrase?

Talk about a live band singing to the beauty of the African giraffe under a sycamore tree watching the beautiful sunset (ooh yes the sunset has to be there because without it, what Africa are you talking about?)

Maybe the concept is a bit far-stretched, but you get my point. This world would be so lackluster if man were the only species inhabiting it. The beauty of it all that makes living worthwhile is the incessant chirping of birds, the joy of clean air and the smell of the rain. So the idea of us living to uphold another life is more like the Dominos effect- which essentially means that everything we do ultimately affects our coexistence in one way or another.

Our Annual National Environmental Awareness Competition all stems from this concept. As we all know, our world is moving towards a crisis, a crisis of survival and sustainability. So what better way to create awareness on Sustainable Environmental Conservation if not the young generation?

This Friday, 7th June 2019, we see Winners of the National Environmental Awareness Competition showcase their brilliance. Ranging from artwork to excellent essays, we see the ingenuity of every individual’s approach in achieving a common goal of Environmental conservation.

In the spirit of Eid Mubarak, stay tuned as we unleash the Arts in Conservation!

16May2019

2019 Environmental Competition Results

in: Announcements by: Giraffe Centre

Every year, AFEW Giraffe Centre gives Kenyan students an opportunity to express their thoughts on a given topic. They do so through essays and art in a highly competitive environmental competition that runs from January to March every year.

This year we’ve seen wonderful entries from students and pupils all over the country.

To know the winners of this year’s competition, please click here.

30April2019

Your Opinion

in: Announcements by: Giraffe Centre

For the past six months, AFEW Giraffe Centre has made some changes in the delivery of service to you our esteem visitors.
We would like to get your views on our service delivery.
Kindly please fill the survey form . we look forward for your views, comments and reviews

24April2019

Kelly’s Fifth Born

in: Animal Habitat, Announcements2 Comments by: Giraffe Centre

Good day today it is. It’s not normal to witness a new born Giraffe Calf.

But this is no ordinary birth. Kelly is a legend already, this is her 5th born calf. Normally, giraffe’s gestation period is 15 months, but Kelly here did 17 months. That’s two whole months extra. Giraffes do this when they feel like the environment they are in is not conducive for giving birth. In this case, this would probably be because of the delayed rainy season.

So giraffes too are thrilled for the rain. Congratulation to Kelly.

Students being taught about trees at the A Rocha Kenya.

05February2019

The WAVES Ecology Scheme

in: Activities1 Comment by: Giraffe Centre

Wendell Berry, a recipient of The National Humanities Medal, once said, “The Earth is what we all have in Common.” A very simple, probably common sense knowledge, but very powerful. It’s a quote that spark our minds to realize ways that ensures posterity of the earth. This is where, Kerrigan Savage Waves Trust comes into play.

Kerrigan Savage Waves Trust (WAVES in short), decided to partner with Giraffe Centre in spreading the conservation message. They have concentrated their efforts to needy school going children. Since the year 2000, together with Giraffe Centre, we are running an ecology program. The target being all Class 5 children from 5 primary schools in the slums of Nairobi and form 1 students of Starehe School. We give them a fully paid ecology trip to wildlife Centres around Nairobi. Some the wildlife centres the students are taken to include, Giraffe Centre, the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, A ROCHA Kenya, Mamba Village and the Nairobi Safari walk. All these places give visitors valuable information about conservation of the environment.

Students at the Mamba village during their ecology trip sponsored by Kerrigan Savage Waves Trust

Other than educating the students, they also fund school projects that are environmentally inclined. The interesting requirement for the projects they fund is that the projects have to be owned by the school. Which means that the students are to be fully involved in the implementation, the school should see and use the output to better their daily activities and the community should embrace it.

Art on the Conservation of Nature — “He that plants trees loves others besides himself.” —Thomas Fuller

So in a very big way, WAVES, are doing all of us a big favor in making sure that this commonly shared resource is being used well. efficiently for now and preserved for posterity.

Thank you very much WAVES for all the support you are offering in environmental conservation and education.

28January2019

Tree planting

in: Activities by: Giraffe Centre

Somewhere in Kenya, there is a family with considerable acres of land. During the planting seasons, this family made it a habit to distribute some of their seeds to the neighbors for planting. Weird I know. When asked why, the head of that family answered that it is a strategy to make sure that his land produces quality produce during the time of harvest.

Here’s why….

Tree planting is not as easy as we tend to believe. Having a good tree nursery goes beyond just planting and watching them grow. It is a process that needs a lot of concentration and guidance from the experts of trees. Here in Kenya, the experts being KeFRI (Kenya Forest and Research Institute), are highly equipped with knowledge on how to have a healthy tree nursery and ways to make sure that the posterity of the trees are assured.

Did you know that for a tree nursery to be viewed as properly made, the owner need to have information the following:-

Where the seeds were found.
A good label of the scientific name of the tree seedlings.

Knowing where the seeds are have been found helps a lot in knowing the kind issues the batch might be having. This means, collecting seeds in the field and planting them does not qualify as a good seed bed. Why?

There are rules to be followed in the collection of the seeds to assure that:-

You do not get the same family of seeds as this would lead to issues with how the plants grow. Think of it like incest, for a good seedling to be productive during transplant, you need different families in the bed so that during pollination, if any of the families in the seedling would, for example, had a stunted growth, during pollination, that problem can be well neutralized. To help solve that, when collecting seeds for yourself, have like 30 meters interval. Why 30 meters you ask? During pollination, the pollen can only travel up to 30 meters. Past that, it gets void and can not be used for pollinating another plant.

So, if we go back to our story, the family did that practice to ensure that in case there was cross pollination between their crops, they’ll still get a quality produce as they were sure of the seeds planted by their neighbors.

11January2019

2019 AFEW Environmental Competition in partnership with Pritt

in: Activities, Announcements4 Comments by: Giraffe Centre

Happy 2019 to you all. We hope that the year started with good tidings for each and every one of us. As we all know, every year, from the 1st of January to the 31st of March we have our environmental competition.This year is no exception.

We are however so sorry for the lateness due to an unavoidable circumstance. Finally, the competition poster is ready.

to get to the poster, please click on the button below.

Good luck and happy new year full of success.