This project will pay for direct and indirect learning costs for children from poor families living within the Tsavo ecosystem. It will provide desks, chairs, school uniform and books for 80 primary school pupils and transport for 25 younger school age children from the marginalized Watha community. It will also support vocational training for 447 unemployed youth, who apart from hunting for bush-meat and charcoal burning, have limited options for earning a means of livelihood.
Although the government supports primary education, local schools serving the Watha community living in the Tsavo ecosystem ,remain under-resourced. Due to poverty, 449 of 1,793 children of school going age are out of school and 159 of these cannot proceed to secondary education for failure to raise school fees. Some classrooms have children sitting on stones. Lack of alternative means of livelihood means that the community engages in charcoal burning and hunting for economic reasons.
The Africa Conservation Education Fund program, through the Africa Network for Animal Welfare will ensure that classrooms are furnished with desks and chairs making them conducive for learning. At least 50 children from poor families will have school fees paid thus allowing them to remain in school. Another 50 unemployed youth will access vocational training in order to start new income generating enterprises as opposed to killing wild animals and degrading forests through charcoal burning .
The project will provide desks and chairs for 40 primary school pupils, creating a conducive classroom learning environment, which will improve their academic performance. It will also pay fees for 50 students from poor families who will enroll into secondary school for further education which will increase their chances of certification and gainful employment. It will sponsor unemployed youth, 50% of whom are women, to learn entrepreneurial skills for alternative livelihoods outside forests.
