Special to the Philanthropy Journal

By Amy Baird

The Amboseli ecosystem is generally regarded as one of the richest wildlife areas in Africa. Located in Kenya on the border with Tanzania, Mt Kilimanjaro looms beyond. Teeming with biodiversity, the ecosystem boasts myriad species, including some of the most endangered in the world. Amboseli is a vast area, spanning millions of acres. While the network of tarmac roads is growing, many rural communities are located far from it. That means providing services to remote parts of the ecosystem can be challenging. Being able to move through the bush quickly is not only a matter of efficiency, but of safety.

This is especially true for Joan Seleyian, a member of the local Maasai community that lives in the region. As the Community Health Program Assistant for Big Life Foundation, her role is to support the Ministry of Health nurses and clinical officers to provide essential health services in remote areas of the Greater Amboseli ecosystem. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Joan realized that having her motorbike license would make a huge difference in her ability to do her job, and took the steps needed to get one. 

Big Life Foundation was founded in 2010 to fight the rapidly escalating poaching crisis in the region. Its founders knew that for conservation efforts to be successful, the local community needed to be involved. They needed to be more than involved: they needed to benefit. 

A few dozen anti-poaching rangers hired from within the local community quickly grew to a hundred, then more. In the last 10 years, operations have grown to include more than 300 local Maasai rangers, employing hundreds of people where jobs and economic opportunity are otherwise hard to come by. 

But community support means more than just jobs and pay checks. It also means making sure that the needs of the community are being met. And that’s where education and healthcare come in. Students who receive scholarships from conservation efforts are more likely to support conservation, as are their parents. And keeping the community healthy by providing healthcare services also helps achieve the core of Big Life’s ethos, which is: if conservation supports the people, then people will support conservation.

It seems obvious, but supporting people means supporting both men AND women. For the Maasai, a traditionally patriarchal society, this has led to a shift in culture. With more scholarships being provided to girls, more women being employed, and even a female ranger unit, Maasai women are becoming empowered and handling things on their own terms. 

Joan Seleyian has certainly handled her role at Big Life on her own terms, where she helps to convene community meetings dispelling the myths and misconceptions that surround family planning, as well as managing a team of Community Health Volunteers. 

Early in the pandemic, Joan learned through her work of a woman in a remote village who had given birth with a traditional birth attendant in the bush, not realizing the risks. She had to be rushed to a hospital 50 kilometers away due to excessive bleeding that nearly cost her life and left her family with huge expenses that could have been avoided. 

Joan explains that this incident inspired her to get her motorbike license, “This raised my desire to reach out to the many women in the rural set up who suffer due lack of necessary information regarding health. I wanted to get my motorbike license because most villages can only be accessed through motor bikes. In addition, women understand better when some sensitive health information is shared to them by a woman, and I can always see their confidence raised when they see me parking my bike.”

She added, “I never thought of riding a motorbike, but the desire and passion to reach out to the community raised the need to learn how to ride one, and getting the license has made me more confident. I’ve seen men tremble when they meet traffic cops, struggling to explain why they do not have a riding license. But I just show mine with absolute confidence, and start off like a pro.”

Since she is now able to reach remote areas quickly, Joan will also be at the forefront of a new program aimed at tackling the high child and teenage pregnancy rates in the area, which sky-rocketed during COVID-19 with so many out of school for such an extended period of time.  

While motorbikes are common in East Africa, it’s uncommon for women to ride them, despite the employment opportunities having a license opens up. Joan Seleyian is the first female employee at Big Life in Kenya to get her motorbike license and is an inspiration to other Maasai women for challenging the status quo. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Amy Baird serves as the Deputy Director for Big Life Foundation USA. She has worked in endangered species conservation for over a decade, with a nonprofit management emphasis on outreach and communications.