Lion Guardians

Category: Community work, Lion Guardians work | Date: Jun 01 2009 | By: lionguardians

After months of waiting, we have finally been able to conduct interviews for three positions as Lion Guardians on Eselenkei Group Ranch. With the drought really affecting the area, the Maasai murrans (warriors) have been travelling huge distances throughout southern Kenya in search of better pastures for their famished cattle herds. Now after a little rain, the murrans are returning to their home area, allowing us to finally hold some interviews! Here are some of the prospective Lion Guardians awaiting their interviews!

We are very excited by this initial step into the new area of Eselenkei. In each of the three areas we had up to 10 eager murrans keen to show us their tracking skills.

Over three consecutive days we interviewed a total of 27 murrans, of which we have selected half to go forward to the next stage - one step closer to becoming a Lion Guardian!

We have been extremely impressed by the eagerness of the murrans we have met. It is exceptionally difficult for young men in Maasailand to find work, particularly as many of them have never attended school and are mostly illiterate, so the opportunities the Lion Guardians program provides makes a huge to their lives.

Hopefully the potential new Lion Guardians will continue to impress us over the next few stages of selection until eventually we have three brilliant Lion Guardians working to protect their once immortal enemy, now turned provider of work - the lion.

Tags: community, eselenkei, interview, job, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai

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Category: Community work | Date: Nov 13 2008 | By: lionguardians

On a recent trip to neighbouring ranch Olgulului, where we are planning on starting the Lion Guardians, we also made a visit to our other neighbours - Eselenkei Group Ranch. We spoke to the committee, who had heard of our success at stopping lions being killed on Mbirikani, and they were very eager to start the Lion Guardians program on their ranch too. The meeting was so fruitful that the committee was even ready to donate some money to help us start a new camp there, to encourage us to bring the program to their area! Here is Lion Guardian Olubi.

The committee are concerned by the number of lions that are still getting killed on their ranch, and they want the Guardians to come and intervene. So, we are hoping to start our work on both ranches; Eselenkei and Olgulului. Here are some of the lions we sre protecting with our work here.

It is very good news that our program has been praised in the communities, and that our neighbours want us to help them too. We are very proud of the success of our project - but our only problem now is funding! In order to start up the program on these two new ranches we will need to find a lot more money. If anyone has any fundraising ideas, please let us know!

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

5 responses so far