Nairobi Education Centre - Animal Orphanage

Background
About 10km south west of Nairobi City Centre lies the first National Park to be established in East Africa on 16th December 1946. At the main entrance to the park is the Wildlife Conservation Education Centre established in 1964 with the aim of educating public on wildlife and nature conservation in the country. Education programmes at the Education Centre encourage participants to gain an understanding of the relationships existing between human activities and the environment.

Objectives
The Nairobi Education Centre with the other established education centres in the field have the responsibility of:

• Educating the public about Wildlife and, Environmental conservation in Kenya.
• Increasing peoples' understanding of their wildlife and eco-systems and the value placed upon them. This aims at creating public awareness, appreciation concern and support for wildlife conservation.
• Providing Wildlife Conservation and Management information to local and foreign visitors in the Parks, Reserves and other tourist destinations.
• Target Groups Learning institutions (Primary, Secondary and Tertiary)
• Adult organised groups
• Communities living adjacent to the park(s).
• Visitors to Nairobi National Park and Animal Orphanage.
• Church organised groups.
• Conservation groups.
• Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) staff.

Activities
At the Nairobi Education Centre the following activities are undertaken to educate the Public:

• In-house special wildlife lectures and video shows
• Lectures on wildlife conservation and management to International students visiting Parks/Reserves in the country
• Free video shows at the centre's lecture hall on weekends
• Guided Park and animal orphanage interpretative tours
• Outreach programmes to schools and other training institutions on environmental and wildlife conservation issues
• Participation in Government and Non Governmental organised conservation activities
• Distribution of conservation education materials
• Hire out Kenya Wildlife Service(KWS) buses for park visits
• Organised weekend and public holiday bus shuttle to Nairobi National Park

Facilities
The centre has the following facilities:

• A lecture hall to accommodate 100 visitors equipped with necessary audio-visual equipment
• Reference library with wildlife publications
• Sixty-two (62) seater buses available for hire by organised park visits
• The animal Orphanage with a variety of animals species
• A DTP unit for production of education materials
• Audio-Visual Centre for production of learning materials