The story of 2020
Morale of the story | Be more like a Dung beetle
You pick your soggy pat, and sometimes it is soggier than most. You wait patiently adjacent to it seeing off any intruders that may want some of your treasure. The sun beats down on you and you scurry away under a waitabit thorn bush to return when the climate is less harsh.
Dusk moves in and you rise from your slumber and you whittle back to your spot and mould your prize.
Now we are on the journey of creativity, the ball that needs to be perfectly round. Nothing has ever been perfect, yet when the watery surface touches the scorched earth it clings onto the exterior building the shell in irregular shapes. You make backwards movements with your head down pushing with all your might in any direction the ball wishes to travel, you hit shrub you fall on your back and wriggle your legs until you get back to your feet.
You hit a tree stump, you tumble down. A stone which bounces you 90 degrees, all collectively changing your trajectory.
You do not know the outcome, you do not know the direction, yet you persistently go for it and believe that you will achieve what it is you set out to.
2020 has been the year of emulating the dung beetles fight for survival. Head down, get on with the job and believe that in time we will get the outcome we all need and want.
A message from Crista
2020 has not been the year we wanted or expected, and it has hit humanity with a bump. We have fallen victim to lockdowns and societal adaptations that we would have never thought were possible, we have all had to make decisions that were taken for the greater good. All that said, Tofauti was able to crack on with projects on the ground here in Kenya and make some steady progress towards helping communities and wildlife on the African continent.
Conservation does historically rely on the Tourism industry in order to be propped up, and much like all industries, without the ability to travel this has been heavily affected. We have had to adapt to the restrictions and lack of continuity and have been stringent on our spend in order to ensure that there is steady progress in the rural places that we have a footprint.
We have implemented the 10% fence plan with Tsavo Trust, installing three fences (20 acres of electric fencing) around community land which border National Parks, running a preliminary experiment to see if this can be something utilised for the wider continent. We have built two water troughs for the Roan species recovery plan, in Ruma National Park alongside the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and Ol Pejeta. Finally, we have begun the implementation of the sand dam provision in Laisamis with our partners Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT). I am proud of the milestones that we have achieved, and the team and I are ambitious to do more.
Thank you for sticking with us, there will be continued highs and lows and know that we will always be fighting for what we believe will offer the greater good to all. We so appreciate all your amazing support. We wouldn’t be where we are now without you. Please view our video of the year here.
Crista Cullen MBE | Founder