Responsible TOurism
SAFARI&BEACH CHARITY: ESILALEI SCHOOL, TANZANIA.
We have begun to assist in Esilalei, a Maasai village along the shores of Lake Manyara. Together with Maasai Wanderings/Into Africa UK and Belafrica (Europe), we have built their first classroom – a Nursery school for 120 students. The elders of Esilalei had heard, along the ‘Maasai Grapevine’ of the success of Ilkurot and spent many months finding out who were responsible. They knocked on the gate, and we had no hesitation in bringing education back into the village.
The school was expanded to include a kitchen, store, teacher’s office, football pitch and sheltered outside benches for viewing when the children play a friendly football match. A visiting school football team from Australia immersed themselves in helping out. There have been desks and murals painted, holes dug, playgrounds established, plastering and many other well appreciated chores. It was such a success.
The school teachers led by the head teacher, Leapaa, continue to try their best to give these children a positive foundation for their primary education. 2011, saw he first primary school classroom. This involved many meetings with the village chairman, parents and teachers to allow this to move forward so the school could be officially recognised by the Tanzania Education Department and be enlisted to be able to apply for government funding as it grow. This will supplement what we already fund for the school.
The teacher’s office and store, along with a kitchen to provide daily porridge for the children were finished last year. The building of the first primary school classroom is almost complete.
In conjunction with the school project at Esilalei, we are currently looking towards making fresh water accessible to the community of a wider scale. As the village is located on the shores of Lake Manyara, a Rift Valley lake, this means the salinity of the groundwater is extremely high. Fresh water can be tapped into approx 2km from the village and we would like to be able to pipe that through to the village as soon as we can raise enough funds.
If you would like to visit Esilalei on your trip or help contribute to its future in any way, please let us know. We would be delighted.
DONATE TO WILDLIFE CONSERVATION
Trying to stop the decline of Africa’s wildlife and culture through promotion of the smaller projects across Africa. Safari&Beach firmly supports this charity and is able to help with donating to any of the small projects. Please do contact us about these worthwhile causes across east and southern Africa.
Ivory Orphans
Raptor Rehab Trust
Living With Lions
Tikki Hywood Trust
Matobo Rhino Project
Mahenye Charitable Trust
The Zambezi Elephant Fund
Elephant Orphanage
Conservation Lower Zambezi
Travel For Impact
Coaching 4 Conservation
The Honeyguide Foundation
Ruaha Carnivore Project
Big Life Foundation
The Milgis Trust