On Thursday 17 September the BBC told the story of our Merrueshi project in Kenya, and we could not be prouder.
BBC South East journalist Stuart Maisner made a filmed report for BBC South East Today and wrote the BBC News article Scheme aids lions in the wild and Kenyan villagers. Chris was also interviewed live on BBC Radio Kent’s breakfast programme.
Watch the TV report and listen to the radio interview here. We have kept copies on our own website so they will always be there.
What the BBC saw
Merrueshi sits beside Amboseli National Park, where lions and other predators take livestock from the Maasai villages, known as manyattas. When a family loses its cattle, lions have usually paid with their lives.
The project was designed together with the Maasai, and they run it themselves. Solar-powered flashing lights around each manyatta keep predators away at night. In return, each household gives two head of livestock to a community insurance herd, managed by the elders, which replaces any animal that is still lost. The same panels light people’s homes, so children can do their homework after dark and families no longer rely on kerosene lamps.
Six villages are equipped so far. In all the time the project has been running, not a single lion has been killed in retaliation for livestock losses.
Help us reach more villages
There are 58 manyattas in Merrueshi, and we want every one of them protected. Each new village we equip means safer livestock, lit homes and lions that are no longer shot in revenge. Please donate if you can, and share the BBC report with anyone you think would care.
You can read more about the Merrueshi project on our website.
Thank you
A huge thank you to Stuart Maisner and the BBC South East and BBC Radio Kent teams for telling this story with such care, and to Pete Haygarth, whose photographs of Merrueshi appeared in the coverage.