January 03, 2025

The future of nature, the future of the cheetah is in the hands of the young generation and children.
Preserving animals in their natural habitat is an important and responsible task, and one of its parts is environmental education. For a number of years, our Project team has been conducting educational lessons in schools. The program began with the production and publication of the coloring book “Let’s Go Wild” together with The Laikipian – Art For Conservation team (https://thelaikipian.co.ke/).
Our new joint project was the development and presentation of the game Nexus Dicey. Nexus Dicey is a fun-filled game that’s all about climate change and environmental awareness. In a world faced with an existential threat of extinction from climate change and environmental damage, players take the role of green warriors and experience the real-world effects of climate change. They get the opportunity to undertake activities that contribute to the health of the planet in a fun-filled way.
Last year, we hosted the main members of the team – James Ndungu, the team lead and Martin Ngugi – illustrator, a wonderful artist and an inspiration to everyone who meets him. Together we proudly introduced the game to several Mara schools. In some schools, we were all very pleased to see the very first “Let’s Go Wild” books that we donated 9 years ago. Not only are they perfectly preserved, but they are still actively used! We presented the game as a floor version and at the same time offered children to play the tabletop version. Both children and teachers played with pleasure, animatedly discussing victories and failures. After all, according to the rules of the game, if a player landed on a square where he “threw garbage into the river or cut down a tree”, he returned several points back, and if he “planted a tree”, he moved forward several points.
During the game, children and adults learn how important it is to preserve nature, what is good and what is wrong, and how everything in nature is interconnected. If the player landed on a square with an animal, the presenter would talk about it, using information from the booklet.
Children are always open to new knowledge, which they absorb perfectly in the process of interactive learning. Safari trips to the park are also part of such learning. Some kids showed us their wonderful artworks with cheetahs, inspired by a visit to the reserve, when they were lucky enough to observe the Tano Bora cheetah male coalition. In the coming year, we plan to continue donating the Nexus Dicey game to pupils in more schools. We are also working on a new ambitious educational project, which we will be happy to present in the near future.