RIP Dr.Wangari Maathai

Goodbye, Prof. Wangari Maathai. We will miss you. Thank you for the inspiration and for all the trees.

Pictures galleries at BBC and Guardian.

Dave Sheldrick

Official Photos from Dave Sheldrick Postcards and Newsletter

The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is an orphanage for Baby Elephants. It was started by Daphne Sheldrick to honour the memory of her husband David, who was a great naturalist. The couple served as the wardens of the Tsavo National Park in Kenya.

Baby elephants are orphaned for various reasons - some mothers die of natural causes, poachers are rampant and mothers are brutally killed for ivory while innocent babies look on, some mothers die when herds get caught in the middle of human conflict. However, it should be noted that most elephants are orphaned due to humans and their activities. Each year 19,000 African elephants are killed.

Once found, the baby elephants are brought to DSWT and hand-reared by a group of dedicated staff members using a special formula of milk whice Daphne took years to develop and perfect. After about three years of TLC, the elephants are taken back into the wild and rehabilitated with a herd. As they are young, they are easily accepted by the mother of the herd and the young ones learn to follow the rules of the herd. A noble initiative that is being well carried out. Another place of hope in an ugly world.
I was fortunate to visit the shelter and say hello to some of the sweet elephant babies there. The shelter also cares for rhinos, one of them completely blind, but at peace.

• Recent NPR Article on getting raincoats for these Baby Elephants.


• Read also about BBC's http://www.elephantdiaries.org/


• Official Website.


• My Photographs:
  
  
  
  
  

  Dave Sheldrick

Nzolo, Dearly Beloved

Here is a post by a friend, an excerpt from The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver.

Babies on the Brink

This set of BBC pictures shows babies of endangered species being carefully hand-reared in specialist facilities around the world.

The Coquerel's Sifaka, like all lemurs, is endemic to Madagascar. Madagascar is home to more than 250,000 (5% of the world's plant and animal) species of which 80% are found nowhere else on the globe (including six baobab species).

The Barbary Lion, originally from Morocco, is a Lion sub-species that became extinct in the wild in the 1940s.

The Aye-Aye is also a lemur, the world's largest nocturnal primate, native to Madagascar that combines rodent-like teeth and a special thin middle finger to fill the same ecological niche as a woodpecker.

The final image is an endearing picture of a baby elephant from Kenya's Dave Sheldrick Shelter.

Mauritania

Abdoulaye "Laye" Sow is a Senegalese musician. Here is his beautiful track Mauritania:

National Parks Galore

The list of national parks in Kenya and Tanzania is larger than I had imagined! The national park system of Kenya is maintained by the Kenya Wildlife Service. KWS Official Website.

Comoros

At the Africa Inland Mission's Mayfield Guesthouse, we met an American couple on their way to (live and work in) Comoros. We knew nothing about the place, so here we go:

Full name: The Union of the Comoros
Population: 691,400 (UN, 2010)
Capital: Moroni
Area: 1,862 sq km (719 sq miles)
Major languages: Arabic (official), French (official), Comoran/Shikomoro (a blend of Swahili and Arabic)
Major religion: Islam
Life expectancy: 65 years (men), 70 years (women) (UN)
Monetary unit: 1 Comoran franc = 100 centimes
Main exports: Vanilla, cloves, perfume oil, copra
GNI per capita: US $870 (World Bank, 2009)
Internet domain: .km

Geography: The Comoros is formed by Ngazidja (Grande Comore), Mwali (Mohéli), Nzwani (Anjouan), and Maore (Mayotte), the major islands in the Comoros Archipelago, as well as many minor islets. The islands are officially known by their Comorian language names, though international sources still use their French names (given in parentheses above). The capital and largest city, Moroni, is located on Ngazidja. The archipelago is situated in the Indian Ocean, in the Mozambique Channel, between the African coast (nearest to Mozambique and Tanzania) and Madagascar, with no land borders.

Economy: One of the world's poorest countries, Comoros is made up of three islands that have inadequate transportation links, a young and rapidly increasing population, and few natural resources. The low educational level of the labor force contributes to a subsistence level of economic activity, high unemployment, and a heavy dependence on foreign grants and technical assistance. Agriculture, including fishing, hunting, and forestry, contributes 40% to GDP, employs 80% of the labor force, and provides most of the exports. Export income is heavily reliant on the three main crops of vanilla, cloves, and ylang-ylang and Comoros' export earnings are easily disrupted by disasters such as fires. The country is not self-sufficient in food production; rice, the main staple, accounts for the bulk of imports. The government - which is hampered by internal political disputes - lacks a comprehensive strategy to attract foreign investment and is struggling to upgrade education and technical training, privatize commercial and industrial enterprises, improve health services, diversify exports, promote tourism, and reduce the high population growth rate. Political problems have inhibited growth, which has averaged only about 1% in 2006-09. Remittances from 150,000 Comorans abroad help supplement GDP. In September 2009 the IMF approved Comoros for a three-year $21 million loan. The IMF gave generally positive reports of the country's program performance as of October 2010. The African Development Bank approved a $34.6 million debt-relief package loan for Comoros in September 2010, and Comoros will attempt to qualify for debt relief in 2012 under the IMF and World Bank's Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative.

Sources: BBC Country Profile, CIA WorldFactbook, WikiPage

Power Women

From Forbes, The 20 Youngest Power Women in Africa, featuring women of influence from various domains.