This year on 13-17 November the Land & Life Foundation, which is the charitable arm of Elewana Collection, hosted the Annual Wildlife Warrior Retreat. This event takes place every year and brings together the bright young students who are studying under the Wildlife Warrior Program Scholarship scheme, with a passion for conservation these young people are the future of wildlife conservation and habitat preservation in East Africa. This year the retreat took place in Lewa Conservation Education Centre, with the support and contribution of the talented and dedicated team resident there. The 27 students and their 5 patrons spent three full days at Lewa, participating in this year’s theme Water Conservation. They took part in drama and role plays, which they wrote and performed themselves; they experienced the wonders of wildlife through a day of game drives, accompanied by experienced conservation educators and wildlife guides; they received mentoring and guidance sessions from Land & Life team and the Centre education professionals; and of course lots of fun.
The Annual Retreat is a crucial part of the Wildlife Warrior Program. This year the team achieved their goals: bringing the young people together to focus on conservation and to see the realities of what wildlife and habitat management can do; developing relationships between people from a geographically diverse range, but all with the common ground of living in or near conservation areas; sharing ideas and experiences and building on common knowledge; feeding in new concepts and new problem-solving and partnership skills.