Photography has always been more than the photograph, but an incredible journey filled with amazing experiences captured.
I am so deeply touched by everyone’s overwhelming generosity to come together and donate funds to bring food, soap, mask, and training to prevent the spread of COVID to the Maasai villages along the southern boarder of Amboseli national Park. I wanted to share the beautiful success of our first distribution! The images and video are a little raw and we are hoping to make a nice video of the project, but I wanted to immediately share the success of this first project.
THE TEAM LEAVES NAIROBI
Many people may not realize the boarders of Nairobi city have been closed for nearly 2 months and the entire country several weeks longer. We were able to aquire special permission for the GPA team to leave Nairobi for 60 hours. The team of Abby, GK, and FOX packed up, fueled up, and headed to Amboseli early Thursday morning.
They would need to resupply several times in the next 48 hours.
They sent a message to all of you from the road in my loud, but exciting Landy.
VILLAGE VISITS
The team visited the villages on the southern boarder of Amboseli national park bringing food supplies, soap, mask and spending a lot time teaching them about how to protect the village from the spread of COVID; physical distancing, hand washing, wearing mask, isolating someone with symptoms, and quarantining those who have had exposure.
Notice the first two images were before learning physical distancing 🙂
COVID TRAINING
I just want to share a few brief clips of the COVID Training done by the team to bring you the ambience of the scene when listening to the Swahili and Maa language, the sounds of the goats, and general village life.
PROTECTED WILDLIFE
One of the big worries with the loss of tourism, the loss of jobs, and leaving the reserves empty was the threat of an increase in poaching and the bush meat market. The team was able to go into Amboseli national park and I am sharing one of several video’s they have sent showing all is well with the elephants and the wildlife!
A MESSAGE FROM THE MAASAI
This is probably one of my favorite clips sent by the GPA team. The chief explains how the Maasai have been affected by the lockdown from COVID. Even the lived stock markets have been shutdown across Kenya. Therefore, they are not able to sell any live stock to earn money for food or other supplies. He discusses they were aware of the virus, but no one had been out to teach them about wearing mask, physical distancing, hand washing, and basic knowledge about how to reduce the spread of COVID.
THEREFORE, your generosity was needed here in so many ways and I deeply thank you for your support!
ZEBRA PLAINS CAMP – THANK YOU
Although the reserves around Kenya have remained open, the camps and lodges are all closed. Therefore, I cannot thank Alfred Korir enough, the owner of Zebra plains camp collection, for his hospitality to open the camp for the GPA team and providing them with a cook, meals, and a beautiful place to rest. This was 100% sponsored by Zebra plains collection and NO funds from the GPA were used to cover these expenses!
THANK YOU FOR THE EXPERIENCE
I am so proud of this team! They worked for 72 hours with very little rest! As I mentioned the lockdown in Nairobi has been tough, so not only did your generosity provide supplies, mask, and COVID training, but it brought some desperately need excitement and happiness into the lives the GPA team. This was Abigeal’s first time in a Maasia village. The team may look a little tired in this last clip, but they wanted to share a few last words before their departure back to Nairobi!
THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROSITY
Thank you all so much for your generosity resulting in the huge success of this first project supporting the villages along the southern boarder of Amboseli, Kenya. We will be starting the second project tomorrow. In about two weeks we will be heading to the Sambura villages along the Samburu national reserve.
DISTRIBUTION
* $2000.00 in staple foods and supplies was delivered
* 400 Mask were delivered ($600.00)
* You put 2 guides to work for 4 days
* You provided COVID Training to thousands of Maasai
* You provided work to my fine art printer – a small business
We hope you will help to continue to support the project and share it with your friends and family!
Go here for more information about the Generosity Project Africa.
Another great job of making lives better and giving appreciation back to those who have helped and or been a friendly informative presence for you while you pursued your dreams. You are a very special lady and I wish you continued success. Go Piper and GPA team. Patti
Thank you patti for you lovely and wonderful comments. Today they are especially needed! In the tragic times it selfishly gives me joy in helping those I deeply care about.
Hi Piper, I finally had a chance to watch all of the videos and it was very heartwarming to see the GPA team in action! Thank you to Abby, GK, and FOX for all of their hard work, taking the supplies to the villages where they were needed and for educating the Maasai to help them stay safe. And thank you again Piper, for making it all happen. Let’s keep it going! -Steve
Hi Steve
Thank you so much for you support of the GPA projects. You helped make this happen. I am glad you were able to find the time to enjoy all the wonderful video’s the team created while in the field. We are excited to have launched our second project for the Samburu communities along the boarders of the Samburu reserve. We will do our best to keep it going while there is a need and thank you for continuing to support the efforts!!!!!
Great work by your team! Education is so needed to help eradicate the disease and stopping the spread. Masks, social distancing, and hand washing are so important. However, these people need the food and supplies you provided for their substance during this pandemic. Tourists want to get back to the Africa we know and love. Keep up. The good work! Thanks Piper for starting this project and your team for carrying it out!
Jennifer, thank you so much for your support of this important project!! As I spend so much time on my own in Africa, I often forget that many times people fly in, have an amazing wildlife safari, and don’t really have time to learn about the importance of the roll of the tribal communities that help to protect our amazing wildlife. It is our pleasure to do all we can to help and hope tourism can open up quickly. So many of us are ready to get on a plane and head back to Africa!! –