Danida project

Karen Blixen Camp has been approved by Danida to receive funding. We wish to establish a professional hospitality education and provide the Maasai youth with the educational background to work in the highly competitive tourism industry

Masai Mara is the most famous safari destination in the world and attracts the attention of thousands of tourists who come to see the great wildebeest migration. Tourism represents the prime foreign exchange earner in Kenya and it is crucial that the people working in the tourism industry are highly competent and experienced. Yet the Maasai youth are left with no locally based hospitality education facility.

Learning for Life, Responsible Tourism at Karen Blixen Camp is a community educational project funded by Danida. We are very grateful for the recognition and will make every effort possible to honor Danida and the Danish Government. Only by taking education and training of the local Kenyan youth very seriously, are we continuously able to compete in the highly competitive tourist industry of today.

Karen Blixen Camp is partnering with the Woodlands Trust 2000 to plant indigenous trees for the restoration of natural wildlife areas in the Masai Mara.
 

Karen Blixen Camp will focus on

•    Cooking school
•    Restaurant services for waiters
•    IT and language courses
•    Forestry education for junior foresters
•    Environmental education
 

Education as a strategic social investment

For the majority of the young Maasai a full course of secondary or tertiary education is not an obtainable goal as school fees and the cost of living in the big cities are simply too high. The poorest part of the Maasai communities is in fact the youth as they do not own land or cattle. These young people will have to make a living as their parents did; herding the livestock or find themselves in constant unemployment, contributing to the cycles of poverty.

Karen Blixen Camp review education as a strategic social investment that effectively contributes to the betterment of the local communities as well as the private sector. Our long term development goal targets reduction of unemployment, poverty and gender disparity. We believe that the direct benefit for us and other camps is access to an international skilled local workforce that gives an outstanding service; competitive with the best restaurants and hotels in the world.