The Mobile Education Unit (MEU) has been and continues to be the most popular conservation education programme of the Wildlife Clubs of 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 and poverty levels are highest.

Since inception the MEU has grown immensely popular with schools and pupils and communities. It combines all the elements of a good learning experience; it’s fun, it’s educational, it involves collaborative learning with the community in rural areas, and above all it is a welcome change from the daily routine didactic classroom instruction. The MEU has the audience that is willing to listen and ready to learn. Over the years several organisations w hich include among others the Prince Bernhard Fund for Nature (PBFN), International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), the Netherlands Wetlands programme and internal sourcing have kindly responded to this need through the support given to the MEU.

From 1996 to the year 2002/3 the M.E.U. has made more than 2,500 school visits where over 400,000 students and villagers have been reached. It has also covered a record distance of over 300,000km countrywide. We thank all our supporters of this programme, for these achievements.

The unit is a vehicle fully equipped with power generator, film, slide and video projector, public address system and other teaching and learning resources. During visits to schools by the MEU, there is a brief talk by the Education Officer followed by a slide or film show and then questions and discussions. The Education officer gets a chance to visit the club and discuss with them their activities and reports back to the headquarters. This provides an important link between the headquarters and the grassroots. This linkage has facilitated the registration of new member clubs and their involvement in other WCK national activities such as competitions, rallies and workshops.

From time to time problems afflicting the National MEU has been the unprecedented delays caused by constant vehicle breakdowns of our vehicle and audiovisual equipment. To counter these problems we have been forced to join 2 or 3 neighbouring schools during visits to certain villages and towns in order to try and cover as much of the scheduled schools.

WCK’s MEU program like all other WCK activities focuses on annual themes and community involvement in conservation. A special focus within this broad community involvement objective is an emphasis on the initiation of sustainable conservation projects at individual school club level. Such projects and activities will have to meet both the conservation and livelihood needs of the area and its people. Kenya is currently facing the challenges of unprecedented poverty levels and a national poverty reduction campaign is underway. We at WCK are therefore sensitive to the peoples’ plight. We also do fully recognize that continued environmental degradation and wildlife destruction will complicated the situation further.

The impact of such destructions on the national economy will leave all vulnerable by increasing pressure on the vital safety nets and breadbaskets of the country. It is because of this that our conservation education programs with the MEU must be part of the community livelihood process.

The MEU program is essentially an outreach activity in contact with schools and communities out in the field. It must not, and will not, carry messages that disenfranchise the people through insensitivity to their real life struggles. The messages carried and transmitted will as much as possible draw on African cultural experiences about wildlife and environment and how to build on this to address the challenges of changing lifestyles and needs. This might sound ambitious but it is a task worth pursuing because the present options will only stare further discontent and hatred not only for the animals but equally for those implementing them.

We are excited at the potential of conservation education in the fight against poverty, hunger, and disease. Biodiversity has always provided an important physical and spiritual nourishment for Africans. Bushmeat hunting has been one of the lifeline survival strategy for the people in these areas and its contribution to the general decimation of wild game can not be underestimated. In today’s evolving capitalist communities, biodiversity can provide the economic incentives while upholding the spiritual values even better. Non-consumptive utilization of wildlife is an economic activity that safeguards our animal populations from decline and destruction while at the same time availing them for our spiritual needs. This is an area that we wish to highlight on further.

The MEU is in a unique position to facilitate community linkages and its outdoor and outreach nature is a forum for all to learn together and exchange ideas. The lectures, film and slide shows, talks and discussions during its countrywide visits involving students, teachers and members of the community are both fun and educational. The excitement created is usually the beginning of a healthy debate at home and within the villages and the result can only be a gain for conservation.

Always as we embark on the scheduled activities for the MEU we will not shy from recording our fears and hopes for the future. The MEU is now immensely popular with schools and pupils. It combines all the elements of a good learning experience; it’s fun, it’s educational, it involves collaborative learning with the community in rural areas, and above all, it is a welcome change from the daily routine didactic classroom instruction. The MEU has the audience that is willing to listen and ready to learn. We are disappointed we cannot reach them all, but pleased that they all understand and patiently wait for their day and turn. We, however, cannot remain complacent about this patience and keep maintaining the status quo. The MEU operations must improve to reduce the waiting list and the waiting period.

The MEU will during the course of the year be visiting the schools as outlined in the WCK annual Calendar of Activities.

At the club level the MEU officer holds meetings and discussions with the members and thereafter shows a film and/or gives a lecture on the theme under discussion. There is also time allocated for the members and the MEU officer to view and discuss club projects. It is also an opportunity to distribute posters and other educational materials that are available from the WCK headquarters and our sister conservation organisations.

Every time the MEU will address major Environmental Education issues in Kenya but will bias towards those aspects that lend themselves more easily towards community involvement and participation. Issues such as domestic eco-tourism and butterfly farming at Arabuko-Sokoke forest, marine resource conservation at the coast, over fishing at Lake Victoria and other non-consumptive utilisation of wildlife resources will be singled out as environmental education concepts for countrywide discussion using the MEU.

An important issue missed out in Kenyan conservation debates concern the ethical and moral dimensions of wildlife conservation and utilization processes. It is our hope that we shall be able to create more awareness on this issue as well. The use of Environmental Education to stimulate community participation and involvement in conservation of biodiversity is an exciting challenge for all of us at WCK and which the MEU will take an active part.

We hope to reach our target of 400 schools with an audience of about 90,000 pupils and teachers annually. We thank our supporters of this programme for their continued support extended to WCK.