Lion Guardians

Category: ways you can help | Date: Dec 22 2008 | By: lionguardians

Great news! There is still time to buy a Lion Guardians Christmas gift certificate! If you would like to be emailed a certificate, please make your donation, and be sure to remember to add a comment, and we will send you one in time for Christmas.

Tags: 2008, christmas, gift, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai

4 responses so far

Category: ways you can help | Date: Dec 18 2008 | By: lionguardians

Stuck for a gift for your friend? No time to go to the shops? Well the Lion Guardians can help! Just make a donation to us, add a comment and we will send you a certificate. You print it out and give it to your friend to show them how they have helped the cause with their gift. Who needs another pair of socks or a toy they’ll never use?

You will be helping our work saving wild lions, and we will be helping you with the shopping! Perfect! Happy Holidays!

Tags: christmas gift, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai

5 responses so far

Category: Donations received, ways you can help | Date: Dec 15 2008 | By: lionguardians

I would like to thank all our donors who have given to us so generously in the month of November. Black C, Sauwah T, Hashi H, Loki Q, Malcolm F, Pirjo I, Nina T, Jessica F, Irene O, Pauline H. Thanks you so much for your donations. I would also like to say a special thank you to Jia L and Richard V, who are both sponsoring a Lion Guardian. Thanks also to those who have made Christmas gift donations to the Lion Guardians. You should all have your certificates - I hope they are well received!

There is still time to get your certificates, should you think of someone who would appreciate this gift. Just make your donation, add a comment, and we will email you the certificate for you to print out and give. Or you can forward the email with the certificate on to them if you do not have a printer, or they live abroad.

THANK YOU!

Tags: christmas gift, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Maasai, masai

2 responses so far

Category: Lion Guardian reports, ways you can help | Date: Dec 08 2008 | By: lionguardians

I just wanted to remind you all that if you make a Christmas gift donation to the Lion Guardians (and make a comment) we will send you a beautiful certificate for you to print out and give as a gift, explaining all about the Lion Guardians and how the donation will be spent.

 I hope some more of you will join in with the Lion Guardians Christmas spirit!

The Lion Guardians have been reporting a lot of lion sightings lately, which is great news, and we also pleased to say that the cow killing spree seems to be over. Good news all round!

Tags: christmas gift, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Maasai, masai

5 responses so far

Category: ways you can help | Date: Nov 28 2008 | By: lionguardians

I hope you like our Christmas present idea and will enjoy giving our certificate as a gift. If you add who the gift is for when you post your comment, we can personalise the certificate for you too. (And I’ll even try and add a photo of some cubs!)

Have a good weekend, from the Lion Guardians!

Tags: christmas gift, ethical christmas gift, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai

One response so far

Category: ways you can help | Date: Nov 26 2008 | By: lionguardians

Its nearly Christmas time, and perhaps you are already thinking about presents to buy your friends and family? Well, I have an idea for you, which I hope your loved ones will like, and which will help the wildlife and people that live here in Maasailand.

Make a donation to the Lion Guardians in the Christmas gift donation box (in multiples of $20), post a comment so that we have your email address, and we will email you a beautiful certificate for you to print out and give to your friend or relative, telling them all about the Lion Guardians and what they have helped to buy with their gift.

I hope you think this is a good idea! I would certainly like to know that I have helped to save a lion with my Christmas present, and with our new programs starting up, and the serious threats to lions that you have been reading about recently, we need to raise as much money as we can! Please tell anyone else that you think might be interested to visit the blog and get their Christmas presents here too!

Thanks you for your support, and season’s greetings from all the Lion Guardians!

Tags: christmas gift, ethical christmas gift, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai

13 responses so far

Category: Lion Guardians work, ways you can help | Date: Nov 03 2008 | By: lionguardians

A few days ago we held our end of month meeting with all the Guardians. I can’t believe how quickly October has passed! The first thing on the agenda was to verify the Guardians’ equipment and make sure that everything was in good working condition. The Guardians are all given a mobile phone so they can communicate any news to us at camp, a GPS for marking the location of wildlife or any incidents, and a backpack to carry their equipment and forms that they fill out. Here is Lion Guardian Koikai on his phone.

Not all of their equipment was working - Mokoi’s GPS has broken, so he will have to wait until we get the money to buy him a new one. Two of our Guardians - Lenkina and Melubo had problems with their phones and need new ones.

And the most urgent problem is that all the Guardians’ backpacks were worn out and not fit to carry their equipment, especially as we head to the rainy season. They have holes, broken zips, and they are certainly not waterproof any more! Here is Olubi with his worn out backpack.

We need to buy new waterproof backpacks for all the Guardians, so we are asking you for your help. Can you donate the money for a backpack to us? We estimate it will be about $30 to buy a new one here. Or perhaps you have a backpack that is waterproof, which you could send us? Please add a comment if you have a spare backpack, and we will send you an address in the US or the UK to send them to, for someone to bring over.

Thank you! I hope we can give each Guardian a new backpack before the rains come. Speaking of the rains, we have had a little rain, but not enough. The animals are still hungry and many are dying. Lets hope it starts soon.

Tags: , Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai

10 responses so far

Category: ways you can help | Date: Jul 25 2008 | By: lionguardians

I hope you enjoyed finding out about each Lion Guardian, their personalities and backgrounds, and how dedicated they are to helping save the remaining lions here. The Guardians are really happy that they have all been introduced, and that you were interested in reading about them.

What is so great about the Lion Guardians, is that they have all been on lion hunts, and most of them have killed lions before, but now they have changed their attitudes completely and are trying to do everything they can to save the lions here and to change the attitudes of their communities towards wildlife too. Here are Nemasi’s cubs - some of the lions they protect.

And the fantastic thing is that they are so successful! Even elders who used to hate carnivores with a passion are listening to the Lion Guardians and have stopped killing carnivores. It is such great news for the wildlife here in this un-protected area.

The project has done so well here on Mbirikani that we hope to start it up in neighbouring areas too. The lions here don’t know that there are boundaries between ranches, and when they move to other areas there is a chance they will be killed. Recently a lion was speared to death on the neighbouring ranch where we hope to start the program. Here is another one of our collared lions - a male called Kesayou.

But first we really need to raise funds. This is where you come in! We are hoping that we can get all our Guardians on Mbirikani group ranch sponsored, before we try to start the program up elsewhere. So far we have 2 Guardians out of the 9 sponsored. We understand that sponsoring a Guardian is a lot to ask. Any one-off donations you can give will help the Lion Guardians too.

If you know anyone else who you think might be able to help, please pass the blog address on to them and tell them about the program. You can also join the facebook cause and invite all your friends to join too. The more people that know about the Lion Guardians, the more chance we have of raising funds to help the program go on. Please spread the word!

Maybe you could start a syndicate among your friends or colleagues where you get together and each donate a smaller monthly amount to sponsor a Guardian? These are just some suggestions! We are grateful for any size of donation you can give us. Thank you so much for your support. All the Lion Guardians pass on their thanks to the blog readers!

Tags: donate, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Maasai, masai, sponsor

7 responses so far

Category: ways you can help | Date: Jul 14 2008 | By: lionguardians

The Lion Guardians program employs 9 Maasai warriors (murrans), whose job it is to protect the remaining wild lions and other carnivores on Mbirikani Group Ranch. They do this by monitoring the movements of carnivores, and by helping their communities, to stop conflicts between humans and carnivores.

They also work with other murrans to prevent further killings. Since the program started the Lion Guardians have actively prevented over ten hunting parties from killing lions. During the same time period, over 20 lions have been killed in surrounding group ranches by murrans. For more information on the work of the Lion Guardians please read the About Lion Guardians page.

We are currently trying to get all of our Lion Guardians sponsored, so that the program can continue to run. The cost of this sponsorship is $95 US a month per Guardian. This pays their wages as well as covering monthly costs such as credit for mobile phones, transportation costs, and the administration and other costs involved in running the project.

Over the coming days, we will be posting a profile of each of our Lion Guardians, in the hope that each will be sponsored. To sponsor one of the Guardians, please add a ‘1′ in the Sponsor a Guardian QTY box under ‘Donate Monthly’ and click on the ‘DONATE MONTHLY’ button. Afterwards you can add a comment about which Guardian you would like to sponsor, if you have a particular one in mind. Ritei and Olubi have already been sponsored, thanks to Richard and Jia.

Even if you can’t afford to sponsor a Guardian there are other things you can do to help us. We are very grateful for any donation you can give to the project and you can also help us by telling everyone you know about the campaign - family, friends and colleagues - maybe even ask your place of work if they are interested in sponsoring one of the Guardians. In return for their support we can add their logo and a link to their site on this blog.

Thank you for your support, and keep returning to the blog to read the profiles of all our Lion Guardians.

Tags: donate, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Maasai, masai, sponsor

4 responses so far

Category: Lion Guardians work, ways you can help | Date: Jun 16 2008 | By: lionguardians

I thought I would tell you a bit more about the news story that has been on the internet and in a lot of the newspapers worldwide recently. The story is about the crisis in lion numbers, especially around Amboseli National Park, near where the Lion Guardians program is located.

It explains that big cats are declining at an alarming rate and may even be extinct in the region within a few years. There may be less than a hundred lions in the area. The main cause of their drastic decline is that the lions have been hunted by the Maasai because of the conflict between the lions and their cattle.

The story talks about the Lion Guardians program and how we employ Maasai murrans, who used to hunt lions themselves, but are now helping to conserve them. The Guardians track collared lions, and warn herders if they are grazing their livestock in an area close to where a lion has been spotted.

They also help herders make their bomas stronger so that predators find it harder to get in, and help them to find lost livestock, as well as educating their communities about how important it is to have carvnivores around. One of their main and most important tasks is to persuade their contemporaries not to hunt lions.

The National Geographic has started a new fund to raise money for big cats, which we hope will help conserve lions in the area. But the Lion Guardians also need your donations to allow us to continue with our important work with the local community.

Tags: conflict, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Maasai, masai, natinal geographic, news, tracking

5 responses so far