A Message From
Our Directors 
Many thanks to all who donated to our Annual Fund Campaign. Your support is helping us to further expand our efforts in 2013!
For a direct example, scroll down to learn about our new Conservation Enterprise and Development initiative!
During our spring visit to the US, we enjoyed reconnecting with sponsors and supporters in Washington, D.C., New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. We are so grateful for their help. We also visited supporters in California, where our work was featured
in an article in the Montecito Journal. See the APW media and announcements section for more news about APW.
We would also like to thank everyone who was involved in, supported, and/or joined our Annual Spring Benefit in New Jersey. It was a huge success and would not be possible without all the efforts of our spring benefit committee, volunteers, hosts, and this year's sponsor - PowerShares.
Thank you all so much!
Wishing all our friends a wonderful summer from our team on the magnificent Maasai Steppe!
Laly Lichtenfeld, Ph.D.
Executive Director
&
Charles Trout
Director of Programs
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Wildlife Conservation
Just as our Living Wall installation period rounds the corner, Elvis Kisimir and his big cat conflict prevention team are reminded of the critical impact their work has on big cat survival. Sadly, six lions and a hyena were poisoned recently on the Maasai Steppe after attacking livestock at a poorly protected corral. Had a Living Wall been in place, this incident would have been avoided, saving the lives of a lion, lioness and her cubs, a spotted hyena, three cows and avoiding a controversy that has rocked the community since the livestock owner was arrested. We are doing our best to install as many new Living Walls as possible - help Elvis reach our goal of 300 Living Walls on the Maasai Steppe by 2014 and make a donation today!
Monitoring our impact on big cats is a critical part of our work. This summer, wildlife monitoring program officer, Dennis Minja, is joined by a Master's student from Yale University to set up a new camera trapping protocol. In addition to recording lion and cheetah presence, Kelly Stoner will be helping APW to identify our local leopards like the wonderful mother and cub shown below. This project falls under an expanded set of objectives thanks to significant scale-up funding provided by the National Geographic Big Cats Initiative! We will tell you more about this exciting development in our forthcoming summer newsletter. Meanwhile, do you know how to tell leopards apart? Take our challenge and "Spot the Match"!
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Environmental Education
We are very grateful to the Hill Freedman World Academy, our National Geographic Big Cats Initiative Sister School, for donating the first laptop, printer, inverter and solar panel to the Loibor Siret Primary School. This is the first school computer throughout our entire district! Our environmental education intern, Talia Calnek-Sugin has started developing a curriculum to teach the children and their teachers how to use the computer.
Our youth education program has been extremely busy as we expand our reach to new schools and debut a new Wildlife Club curriculum. The curriculum was taught to participating Wildlife Club teachers in March and is now being shared with the students. Meanwhile, the children in our Wildlife Clubs recently took their examinations to be admitted to the Noloholo Environmental Summer Camps. We are busy preparing and excited to welcome the first set of enthusiastic campers on July 1!
Currently on a school vacation, our 16 Noloholo Environmental Scholars will help mentor children at the summer camps. But of course, the scholars also need guidance and support! In April, we invited the scholars to the Noloholo Environmental Center for an Academic Bootcamp retreat. Lasting six days, our scholars learned important tips and skills for efficient studying. They also had one-on-one counseling with our environmental education officers. Then, they returned to their school in Monduli, rested and fully prepared for classes.
If you would like to help support our scholars, please contact us or make a donation and specify the Noloholo Environmental Scholarship Fund.
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Rangeland Management
In May, we held a three-day Watershed Management training seminar for community members of Kimotorok village. Twenty-eight participants from Kimotorok visited Noloholo to learn about their watershed and improved water conservation measures. The group discussed ways to prevent the dipping of cattle in the water source and other methods of reducing water pollution including better waste disposal. They are now sharing what they learned with the wider community.
Our environmental education officers, Neovitus and Revocatus, also trained additional community members to help present our adult environmental education curriculum. We now have 10 community trainers ready to assist our team in elevating environmental awareness on the Maasai Steppe! They were able to test their abilities during a Rangeland Management training seminar given to community members of Narakauo village. Although the seminar only lasted two days, instead of the usual three, the group was able to learn about improved grazing techniques for their cattle and ways to preserve grasslands for both domestic and wild animals. View more photos of our trainings on Facebook.
Meanwhile, our community game scouts were busy combating the illegal production of charcoal in eastern and southeastern portions of Loibor Siret while continuing to help prevent human-wildlife conflicts.
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Conservation Enterprise and Development
We are pleased to add a new section to our e-news updates with the introduction of our Conservation Enterprise and Development Program! Joyce Ndakaru has joined our team as the CED program officer and is busy developing projects for this new APW initiative.
Working with our education team in May, Joyce hosted 25 women from Loibor Siret at the Noloholo Environmental Center for an environmentally-friendly entrepreneurship training session. Since then, the women have mobilized their own groups and are meeting on a weekly basis to develop their small businesses. To help support them, we are creating a micro-loan initiative to elevate those businesses which also have a positive impact on the environment. Empowering women in our local communities makes it easier for them to ensure the health of their respective families!
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APW in the Media & Announcements
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