Kasigau Women Group are registered as a Community Based Organisation in Taita Taveta County. This group has 520 women of all ages and aims at improving their livelihoods from Kasigau area that borders Tsavo West and East.

The group is currently implementing two projects, namely: basket weaving and (newly) beekeeping. The two projects aim at improving their livelihoods to over 1,000 homesteads within the region. Elephant Neighbors Center (ENC), www.elephantcenter.org, acts as a strategy partner with Kasigau Women group and are currently implementing the bee-keeping project supported by the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, Nairobi.

Through the support of the Embassy, we have been able to construct the bee apiary, i.e., bee house; acquired 60 bee hives; and facilitated sessions on technical skills on governance, mostly on project development and marketing. However, these women need fully-fledged training on project development; they have goodwill and are passionate about environmental conservation as well as improving their livelihoods using their basket weaving business. The success of this project will help reduce human-wildlife conflict in the area. The local communities are quavi-pastoralists and farmers, with haphazard farms that end up being raided by elephants and other wild animals. Additionally, the sale of honey and that of woven baskets, will improve their livelihoods and caution them from practising farming that require them to clear virgin bushes that leave the area open and prone to soil
erosion.

Elephant Neighbors Center (ENC) seeks to add more environmental and conservation related projects, such as re-seeding for hay business, and construction of guest houses, tapping both local and international tourists who visit Tsavo East and Mount Kasigau; this will act as an alternative source of income for the locals and reduce exploitation of the environment for sustenance.