Jeremy Lucas Education Fund
Ewaso Lions recognises the critical link between education and conservation. While we firmly hold to the belief that tomorrow’s wildlife leaders must be equipped with a solid education today, we are coming to redefine what a solid education means. We have noticed that formal education in cultural landscapes has had a rather deleterious effect. Instead of empowering children to make informed choices, it has divorced them from their culture and their landscape, instilled a capitalistic mind-set which has led too many scholarship children in the landscape down a grave path of seeking profit over all else, unravelling the gains that were expected for the culture and biodiversity of the landscape.
Set up in 2017, the Jeremy Lucas Education Fund (JLEF) enables young teenagers in Samburu and Isiolo counties in Northern Kenya to have secondary and tertiary education. Each year many of the children who complete primary education cannot afford secondary school fees and all the associated costs such as school books and stationery, uniforms and transport to and from school. Donations raised through this fund will now give these young people a chance to further their education. It will go a long way to improving their lives and their futures. We couple this formal education with a strong internship and mentorship link with Ewaso Lions, ensuring that as they learn, they do not forget their culture, and do not devalue where they came from.