On the 15th January, 2025 a total of 48 children accompanied by 2 teachers went on an Ecology and Conservaton trip to the Giraffe Centre.  Each year the Education department at the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife (Kenya) AFEW, allocate places free of charge to school children who would otherwise not be able to take part in such trips. 

 

The AFEW (K) has been supporting Patmos School  for several years  now and very many children from the school  have benefitted from being able to go on these educational visits.  

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The Ecology excursion is a special and exciting day’s outing for children. It starts with a trip to the Nairobi National Park and Animal Orphanage, followed by a visit to Mamba Village and finally the Giraffe Centre. The tour ends with refreshments and exciting activities such as feeding the giraffes and watching videos on environmental subjects.

 

During these educational visits the children learn about the endangered Rothschild giraffe and wildlife in general as well as about the ecosystems in Kenya.  The children also learn environmental themes such as sustainable development, forest conservation, wetlands protection and waste management. 

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Incorporated in the educational program during the day is information about some of the environmentally friendly projects that can be initiated to promote conservation in schools. 

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Below is a Report about the Ecology and Conservation trip written by one of the teachers:

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"On the 15th of January,2025,48 Upper primary learners from grade 4 up to grade 9 from Patmos Cottage School together with 2 teachers, Mr. Ogutu Sylvester and Madam Roseline Auma embarked on an educational trip to the Giraffe Centre. This visit aimed to enhance our understanding of natural sciences. We departed from the school at 8.00am and arrived at the Nairobi National Park. We visited and saw aquatic plants and animals like reeds, fish and water lily. We proceeded to safari walk and visited a zoo and saw many animals such as hyenas,  giraffes, squirrels, white and black monkeys, baboons and lions. It was so exciting!

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We also visited Mamba village and explored crocodiles, ostriches and tortoises.  The children and teachers laughed a lot and had a great time playing with the tortoises.

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Then we departed from Mamba village to the Giraffe Centre.  The children were taught in a class by our guide about the different types of giraffes for example the Masai, the Samburu and Baringo giraffes.  Our guide also taught us about the conservation of water and about the  preparation of charcoal using paper, coffee and charcoal waste.  It was so educational and interesting.  It was fantastic!

 

We then had a picnic in the park.   We had a delicious meal, the diet included fried chicken, rice, a stew of Irish potato and carrots, chapati and juice and mineral water. It was a very satisfying meal! After the meal we were able to feed a giraffe. We departed from the Giraffe Centre at 3.00 pm and returned back to school at 4.00pm. 

 

My colleague and the children found the ecology and conservation trip to be very beneficial.  We all had a lot of fun, we laughed a lot and had a great time.  It was fascinating and educational, and we all learnt a lot about the animals and about conservation.   We are very grateful to the Giraffe Centre for awarding our school places on this Ecology and Conservation trip."

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Patmos School is extremely grateful to Mr Victor Ochieng, Tourism and Conservation Education Officer in the Education Department of AFEW (K), for organising and facilitating this trip for the children.

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To find out more about AFEW (K) and the wonderful work they do please visit their website:

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www.giraffecentre.org 

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