Tag Archives: Kenya

WasteAid Virtual Safari

WasteAid has created a Virtual Safari into the Kenyan wilderness!
It’s an immersive experience with science, culture, art, cookery and lots of wildlife to help lift spirits, and to raise money for waste collectors in low-income countries.

The safari route is around Lake Naivasha in Kenya, where WasteAid is working with local partners to improve waste collection and recycling. The entire 75-kilometre route is equivalent to 100,000 steps or 1,000 minutes exercise. Along the way you visit a number of ‘stations’ where you can complete unique challenges. You share your journey as you go, and can win prizes along the route, including 2 of my wildlife limited-edition prints!

The Virtual Safari offers a change of scenery and a fun and educational experience, while helping protect people and wildlife in poorer parts of the world.

The virtual safari opens opened on Earth Day (22 April) and stays open until World Environment Day (5 June).

Ahead, 8×10″ limited edition print, 1 of the prizes for the WasteAid virtual safari.

Zoë Lenkiewicz, Head of Programs and Engagement at WasteAid, says:

“We wanted to create something for people to escape into and enjoy, while raising money for our urgent appeal Waste Collectors Rock! The communities around Lake Naivasha, especially those working with waste, are in poverty and vulnerable to disease – yet at the same time they are surrounded by all this incredible wildlife. We thought it would be fun to support waste collectors in places like this, by sharing the beauty and wonder of the environment they work so hard to protect.”

WasteAid shares waste management and recycling skills in the world’s poorest places and you can help them by visiting Kenya on their virtual safari!

Safari njema!
(Travel well).
Alison

www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

In the last few weeks, almost every person I’ve met has asked me this question:

“Will you be going back to Africa while there is still an Ebola outbreak?”

In answering the question with a resounding “Yes”, I have tried to explain the size of the African continent and the huge distance between West Africa, where the Ebola outbreak exists, and the safari destinations of East and Southern Africa. As the crow flies, London is actually closer to West Africa than Nairobi in Kenya! It is very easy to find alarmist reports in the media wherever you are in the world and the other day I received an email from a friend in South Africa who was concerned about my husband traveling into New York City for work because she had heard of the healthcare worker here who had been infected while working in West Africa!

Tourism is vital to the economies of many African countries and plays a large part in ensuring the continued existence of wildlife and wild lands. If you value this and want to help both the people and wildlife of Africa, please think very carefully before canceling your travel plans to the continent. Consult your travel agent by all means, but remember that the main safari destinations of East and southern Africa are literally thousands of miles away from the outbreak in West Africa.

Before I end I do want to say that Ebola is a terrible disease and my thoughts are with the people of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea who are caught in this outbreak. The dedicated healthcare workers from these and other countries are heroes and should be treated as such. I hope that the outbreak can be controlled quickly without the loss of more life.

Until next time
Alison

Art Inspired by Africa and Conservation
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Nicholls Wildlife Art

Pencils for Africa

Recently I was asked to join the Creative Advisory Board of an exciting organization called Pencils For Africa (PFA) founded in 2013 by Karim Ajania. The point of Pencils for Africa is to connect middle school children in America to their peer group in Africa, building a community, exchanging ideas, and allowing US students to develop a deeper understanding of the African continent. This is to be achieved by several means, including the delivery of used pencils (a powerful communication tool and often a scarce resource) to children in places like Nangida Village, Kenya, with whom PFA have links.

The PFA Editorial Team consists of 5th – 8th graders from California, including Gloria, an 8th grader who is Editor-in-Chief (see the link below to watch Gloria’s video presentation on behalf of the Editorial Team to the Board of Directors). The Editorial Team are interviewing all members of the Creative Advisory Board and I will be interviewed by Chelsea so you will see that interview in a future newsletter. During the past year interviews have also been conducted with educators, environmentalists, humanitarian workers and artists who either are based on the African continent or who work with pencils in either an artistic or an educational capacity. One such interview was conducted with Human Rights Watch researcher and human rights lawyer, Olivier Bercault, about his work with children in war and conflict zones. Mr Bercault gave pencils & paper to children who were survivors of the genocide in Sudan and they drew graphic depictions of their experiences. The PFA Editorial Team learned how powerful and effective simple pencil drawings can be and as a result, Mr. Bercault’s work has become a major impetus for the PFA program.

Although PFA has only been in existence for 1 year, they have exciting plans for the future. I look forward to working with them and hope that my experience as an artist in Africa will be of help in the advancement of their worthwhile and challenging goals.

Learn more about Pencils For Africa
Gloria’s Presentation to the Board of Directors
Interviews with PFA Creative Advisory Board
Interview with Olivier Bercault

Until next time…
Alison

Art Inspired by Africa and Conservation
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Nicholls Wildlife Art

Warthog made from flip flops by Ocean Sole in Kenya

Julie Church takes the many flip flops washed up and discarded on Kenyan beaches and turns them into amazing animal sculptures through her company Ocean Sole, which also provides employment opportunities and education about marine pollution. Ocean Sole now employs more than 100 Kenyans and their flip flop sculptures are sold in 40 zoos, aquariums and museums.

I tried to come up with a terrible pun involving flip flops but I’m afraid I couldn’t – so instead I’m just going to say that this is a wonderful, ingenious use of recycled materials!

Learn more about Ocean Sole.

Until next time…

Alison

Art Inspired by Africa and Conservation
A donation is made towards conservation in Africa from every sale
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Nicholls Wildlife Art

We know so much about elephants from years of research in so many countries. One of the many things we know is just how smart they are. But the advent of new technology, like GPS tracking collars, allows research to be seen in a new light. Take this very interesting interactive map showing the movements of 5 bull elephants in Laikipia County, central Kenya. The map was created by Wildermaps for Space for Giants. Click on the map to see the movements of the bull elephants over a 24 hour period and you’ll notice that they spend the daylight hours in the relative safety of protected areas then at night they move out into the ‘unsafe’ zones occupied by subsistence pastoralists. At dawn they return to the safe areas again.

We may view this as very smart behavior. I’m sure that many of the subsistence pastoralists who have to deal with their night-time incursions into their fields are less enthusiastic about ‘smart’ elephants (incidentally, this is the subject of my next painting, which will be revealed here fairly soon). But there is no doubt that seeing this data as an interactive map helps illustrate the behavior and will hopefully help in the creation of policy and actions on the ground which can help people and elephants share the land, thereby ensuring the survival of Africa’s giants.

Learn more about Space for Giants.

Until next time…
Alison

Art Inspired by Africa.
A donation is made towards conservation in Africa from every sale.
Visit my Website
Join my Mailing List
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Nicholls Wildlife Art