BACKGROUND

Wildlife Clubs of Kenya (WCK) is a charitable, non-governmental organisation formed in 1968 by Kenyan students. It was the first conservation education programme of its kind on the continent of Africa. According to Dr. George Schaller: ”WCK is the most effective grass-roots programme of its kind in all of Africa.” WCK was elected to the UNEP’s Global 500 Honour Roll in 1986. WCK is run by a 20-member council of Civil Servants, members of NGOs private citizens and teachers. A national secretariat handles daily activities with the advice of an executive committee of specialists in conservation education, business and public administration. The National secretariat co-ordinates WCK’s numerous activities, sends out mobile field units and education and education officers to schools, runs training workshops, organises rallies and prepares club publications.

Through Africa wide workshops, WCK has stimulated a continental wildlife clubs movement. It has also helped spawn clubs in Asia, Latin America and elsewhere in the third world.

WCK is now actively lobbying for conservation action. This has helped to bring about a hunting and wildlife trophy ban in Kenya; increased tree planting and soil erosion control activities; and vigorous conservation of natural resources.
After more than quarter century of service, WCK proudly looks back on one fundamental achievement. It has helped educate over 1,000,000 young Kenyans and placed many of them in positions of influence. The clubs’ intention now is to ensure that this enormous membership and awareness leads to tangible conservation successes.

WCK’s Objectives are to:
- Interest and educate Kenya’s youth about the environment and natural resources
- Alert the public to the great cultural, environmental, aesthetic and economic value of natural resources.
- Develop a better understanding of the need to conserve wildlife and other natural resources.
PROGRAMMES AND ACTIVITIES
Here are some of the programmes offered by WCK:

STUDENTS’ SEMINARS
WCK believes that sustained education from grassroots to leadership levels is the single most important element in improved environmental protection. Due to the number of members registered WCK now conducts seminars to members through out the country.

MOBILE EDUCATION UNITS
The Mobile Education Unit (MEU) has been and continues to be the most popular conservation education programme of the Wildlife Clubs f Kenya. It is an outreach programme that reaches the clubs at grassroots level countrywide taking conservation messages in a lively and entertaining way. The MEU travels to schools in most parts of Kenya and in most cases remote areas of the country where electricity and water have yet to reach. In one year the MEU visits an average of 400 schools where over 90,000 students and villagers are reached. In total the MEU covers a distance of over 40,000kms countrywide.
WCK has established two other new MEUs in the Coast (Mombasa) and Western- Kenya (Kisumu). The Units are 3 vehicles fully equipped with power generator, film, slide and video projector public address system and other teaching and learning resources. The Mombasa Unit travels throughout the Coast Province, the one in Kisumu covers both Western and Nyanza Provinces while the National MEU, based in Nairobi covers the rest of the country. The Education Officer gets a chance to visit the clubs and discuss with them their activities and reports back to the headquarters. This provides a link between the headquarters and the grassroots. This linkage has facilitated the registration if new member clubs their involvement in other WCK national activities such as competitions, rallies and workshops.

MEMBERSHIP
WCK is a membership orgnisation and its members range from school clubs to community groups categories of membership include: Primary schools, secondary schools tertiary educational institutions like universities and colleges, associate membership i.e adult indibiduals, corporate membership and community church groups. Currently the membership stands at over 2000 clubs and over 200,000 individual members.