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Kenya – Environment , Community and Conservation - Africa and Asia Venture

Kenya – Environment , Community and Conservation

Gap Year Experience in Kenya

If you want to rebuild a classroom under the Kenyan sun, live amongst the fantastic African wildlife and become part of the community - look no further!

Kenya Environment & Community Dates & Costs    

Where in Kenya?  (Kenya Map>>)

The Coast. 

Spend four days of the induction course on Diani Beach, getting to know the group and adjusting to the feel and smell of Africa. Then head off south towards the Tanzanian border to your house in the small fishing community of Shimoni Village. From here you will travel daily to Wasini Island for your community volunteering on projects centred around building the primary school and enjoying the children - plenty of opportunities to teach, coach sports or simply play with the kids. At the end of your month here, your group will divide and move on to the next projects.

The Taru Desert.

Charles Coldman, an AV from 2003, spent three months living at the foot of East Africa's largest, lone-standing granite rock - Mount Kasigau, nearly three hours west of Mombasa. He fell in love with the people from the area and has established his own charity, African Promise, to help them develop their infrastructure and schools, in order to give a future to those growing up there. You will spend a month community and environment volunteering with Charles, his workers and the villages, and discover why what they say about Africans is true: "You can take the African out of the village, but you can never take the village out of the African!" The pace of life is slow, the community is just that - a community - and laughter is what you hear most ... as well as the waving, ragamuffin children shouting: "Mzungu! Mzungu!" whenever they catch sight of you! Kasigau has its own eco-system and the bird life is fantastic, not to mention the wildlife that roams freely around (and sometime through!) the villages.

Soysambu Conservancy.

Soysambu is a 48,000-hectare conservancy lying in the dry Kenyan plains of the Great Rift Valley, between the flamingo-tinged Lake Nakuru and Lake Elementaita. It offers diverse ecological habitation for a fantastic array of African game. You will spend a month, in our tented camp, volunteering with the management staff in a variety of tasks and experience a number of bush skills, including Maasai tribal practices. You might find yourself removing fences and snares, building hides and monitoring bird and wildlife, helping in reforestation and wetland projects and getting some 4x4 skills under your belt, amongst other things. A great chance for you to experience environment and conservation volunteering at its best!

When?

Gap Year projects fall between February to June, May to September and October to February.

How Does it Work?

We provide you with a food and living allowance that enables you to shop for your own food. The volunteering phase is for three months altogether (3x4 week periods) and follows immediately after the four day orientation course. Your group will begin volunteering on the coast, livining in Shimoni and working on Wasini Island. Then half of you will spend a month volunteering at Kasigau, in the Taru Desert, on a community volunteering project and the other half at the Soysambu Conservancy, on a conservation volunteering project, and then swap over.

What Do We Live In?

Coast.

You will all live together in a large, self-catering house on the edge of Shimoni Village. Electricity, showers and flushing lavatories are available in the house. Sleeping arrangements are dormitory-style.

Taru Desert Village.

Mmmm ... this is more like it! Your very own round, thatched mud hut with only a solar-charged car battery for some light in the evenings. The loos are long drops and the showers are 40 gallon oil drums on the roof - gravity does the rest. Again, it's self-catering with a couple of bedrooms. You will absolutely love it - really!

Soysambu Conservancy.

You will live under the acacia trees of the Soysambu Conservancy in our comfortable tented safari camp, overlooking Lake Elementaita in Kenya's famous Great Rift Valley. There will be showers, toilets, a cook tent (and a cook!) and a dining area, apart from your own living accommodation (four to a tent). Camping in the bush, with African game all around you, is one of the most beautiful experiences you will have on your Gap Year.

Are There Travel Opportunities?

OH YES! This is one of the things people love about AV. Following your environment, conservation and community volunteering you will all have a period of independent group travel in Kenya, Uganda or Tanzania for nearly three weeks. Options are too numerous to mention but the following have always been popular:

• Relaxing under palms on the white sands of the Kenyan coast.
• Exploring Zanzibar's spice markets, beaches and diving schools.
• Visiting the mountain gorillas in the Ruwenzori Mountains.
• A three day camel and camping safari in the bush.
• White-water-rafting, bungee and quad biking around the Nile.
• Game-viewing safaris almost anywhere.
• Climbing either (or both!) of Africa's highest mountains (Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya).

What About The Safari?

Crikey! This is something AV has always done as part of the scheme and it is certainly worth the wait! You will all gather in Nairobi after your three weeks of travel and adventure and be taken on a brilliant five day safari. It will take in all the wildlife you would hope to see in Africa, and some you probably didn't know existed! The flamingos living around the edge of Lake Nakuru provide an amazing pink hue to the entire lake - there being an uncountable number of them mixed in with the pelicans! After a couple of nights at Lake Nakuru and three nights in the famous Maasai Mara or Samburu National Parks, you ought to have quite a number of memories (and pictures) to take home with you - perhaps even the ‘Big Five' (elephant, lion, leopard, rhino and buffalo).

And Afterwards...

If you're like 99% of those who have been before you, you'll agree that it will have been the best four months of your life so far. You'll find leaving difficult...and returning easy!  We say that "Once an AV, always an AV!" What this means is that you will be joining an exclusive club that will be there for you to help out if you ever get into difficulties and will always be pleased to see you again in Africa. As an AV, we hope your relationship with us will continue long after your initial time in Kenya.

Kenya Environment & Community Itinerary

Kenya Environment & Community Dates and Costs 

Kenya Environment & Community Facts

Useful Stuff to know about volunteering in Kenya.

KENYA PHOTO GALLERY

If you need some help and want to talk about your plans to volunteer, please Make an enquiry