Kuki Gallmann
Kuki Gallmann | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1943-06-01) 1 June 1943 Treviso, Italy |
| Occupation | Writer, environmentalist |
| Years active | 1972-present |
| Spouse(s) | Paolo Gallmann |
| Children | Emanuele, Sveva |
Kuki Gallmann (Italian pronunciation: [ˈkuː.ki ɡaːlˈman]) (born June 1, 1943) is an Italian-born Kenyan national, best-selling author, poet, environmental activist, and conservationist.[1]
Contents
1 Biography
2 Humanitarian and environmental work
3 Gallmann Memorial Foundation
4 Awards
5 Other projects
6 Shooting incident (April 2017)
7 References
8 External links
Biography
The daughter of Italian climber and writer Cino Boccazzi, in 1972 she moved to Kenya with her husband Paolo and son Emanuele. They acquired Ol ari Nyiro, a 98,000 acres (400 km2) cattle ranch in Western Laikipia, in Kenya's Great Rift Valley which she would later transform into a conservation park. Both her husband and son died in accidents within a few years.
Kuki decided to stay in Kenya and to work toward ecological conservation in the early '80s, becoming a Kenyan citizen. As a living memorial to Paolo and Emanuele, she established the Gallmann Memorial Foundation (GMF), which promotes coexistence of people and nature in Africa and is active in education, biodiversity research, habitat protection, reforestation, community service, peace and reconciliation, poverty alleviation and public health. GMF promotes environmental education of Kenyan students. She dedicated Ol ari Nyiro to this ideal, converting it into the Laikipia Nature Conservancy.
Gallmann has published five books, all global best-sellers. The first, her autobiography I Dreamed Of Africa, became a feature film starring Kim Basinger and has been published in 24 countries and translated in 21 languages. Her other books are: African Nights, Il Colore del Vento, Night of the Lions, and Elefanti in Giardino.
Humanitarian and environmental work
To bring attention to major environmental topics through art, in 2006 she founded the Great Rift Valley Trust together with her daughter Sveva and other Kenyan personalities. The Trust invites artists to create original fusion art with Kenyan 'slum' artists at the Laikipia Nature Conservancy. The Trust also co-produces the Laikipia Highlands Games, sports for peace, and the Earth Festival to help the environment.
In 2008, after Kenya's post-election violence, she founded the Laikipia Highlands Games (Sport for Peace) to put together, through peaceful but challenging competition of sports, youth across the ethnic, tribal and political divide. The LHG won for Kenya the 2009 Event of Year World Award by the Peace and Sport Foundation in Monaco. The LHG promotes peace through sports amongst previously warring tribes.
In 2010 she founded Prayers for the Earth, to involve local tribal elders and youth to recapture the traditional respect for the environment on which their livelihood depends, and reconnect to the Earth through traditional worship.[2]
In 2011, with her daughter, she acquired and donated 300 acres for a model community project called "Land of Hope" in Laikipia West, which aims to benefit impoverished communities of the area. With support from Maisha Marefu, an Italian Onlus, the project was brought to life: a vocational centre for women and youth, a nursery school and feeding programme, a dispensary, and a high altitude athletics training centre are part of the scheme. This last athletics centre, in partnership with Martin Keino, of Keino Sports Marketing, was completed in 2013.
Sveva, her daughter, holds an MSc in Human Sciences from New College, Oxford and coordinates the award-winning 4 Generations Project, an educational scheme to proactively protect local endangered cultures, by bridging the inter-generational gap. Sveva is also leading several art projects and community projects amongst local tribes to promote peace and improve their living standards.
Despite these circumstances, Kuki succeeded in maintaining Ol Ari Nyiro as a largely untainted reserve of scientific and cultural value. This is witnessed by the recognition of several important accreditations to Ol Ari Nyiro, including being recognized as a “Eastern Afromontane Biodiversity Hotspot”, as one of UNEP World Designated Protected Areas (WDPA), and being officially declared an Important Bird Area (IBA) an area recognized as being globally important habitat for the conservation of birds populations, and as a KEY BIODIVERSITY AREA (KBA number 064) through
Nature Kenya and Birdlife International, a status recognized by the IUCN with the following definition: "Key biodiversity areas are places of international importance for the conservation of biodiversity through protected areas and other governance mechanisms." Additionally, since 2015 Ol Ari Nyiro is part of Kenya Wildlife Conservancies Association (KWCA 087). Not only is the Conservancy an area of outstanding natural beauty, but also, as a result of the
protection that has benefited for over forty years under Kuki's guardianship, the natural springs were preserved and Ol Ari Nyiro now serves as the Water Tower for the Great Rift Valley Lakes. The Mukutan Gorge was defined by Professor Truman Young as “the most varied botanically non forested area in East Africa”
Gallmann Memorial Foundation
The Foundation proves that Africa can survive out of the ecological, creative and sustainable use of its natural resources. She transformed Ol ari Nyiro into a Nature Conservancy (LNC) managed holistically after selling the livestock. Due to relentless protection, Laikipia Nature Conservancy is a biodiversity oasis that supports and protects an extraordinary variety of plants and animals, the only pristine forest in the area, which includes endangered species such as elephants, cheetah, over 470 species of birds and rare and endemic plants and insects, in addition to archaeological sites.
Awards
- The Order of the Golden Ark by the late HRH Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, 1991
- The Mimosa d’Oro for Woman of the Year award in Catania, Italy, 2012[3]
- The American Association for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) Founder Award, New York, 2002
- Illchamus Elder 2005
- The Peruvian Order por la Protección del Ambiente, 2006
- Event of Year World Award by the Peace and Sport Foundation in Monaco 2009
- The Africa Hero Award by the Africa Foundation (US, New York) 2010
- Grosso d’Oro Veneziano International Award for Lifetime Conservation Achievement (Italy) 2012
- Lifetime Honoris Causa literary Award Gambrinus Mazzotti for Adventure and Exploration 2017[4]
- Others
- World Ambassador for the Migratory Species by the United Nation Convention for Migratory Species (CMS), 2006
- Honorary Degree in Human Sciences at the St. Lawrence University, US
- Honorary Warden the Kenya Wildlife Services
- Former Trustee, National Museums of Kenya Endowment Fund
- Patron District Peace Committee
Other projects
Co-Founder
- Laikipia Wildlife Forum (with Gilfrid L. Powys)
- Land of Hope (with daughter Sveva)
Projects, Buildings and creations
- 1987/1990 Ethnobotany research, essential oils, traditional knowledge
- 1988 The Wilderness Education Centre (LWEC). Environmental visits by local children for free
- 1989 The Ivory fire, 18 July Nairobi National park
- 1991/1992 Laikipia elephant monitoring project and elephant corridors (with Zoological society of London, WWF, KWS)
- 1995 The Mukutan Retreat eco-lodge
- 2000 Makena's Hills Center of Origin
- 2003/2006, with UNDP, Lelechwa eco-charcoal project
- 2006 GMF built and donated a maternity Clinic to the Ol Moran Community: Ol Moran Maternity Clinic and Health Centre
- 2007 Woodhenge, amphitheatre for events and prayers
- 2009 during one of the worst droughts in Kenya's history, Kuki Gallmann started an emergency Nursery school, a famine relief and feeding programme, that has so far benefited over 35,000 women and children and is ongoing
- 2010 Ndidika Dispensary
- 2015 Matweku dispensary
- 2015 Kipkumun / East Pokot Nursery school
- 2016 Kamwenje Women Clinic
Shooting incident (April 2017)
On 23 April 2017, Gallmann was attacked and shot by Pokot militia in the stomach when she was patrolling the Laikipia Nature Conservancy and was airlifted to Aga Khan Hospital, Nairobi, for further treatment.[5][6]
References
^ Who shot Kuki Gallmann? The story of a Kenyan conservationist heroine
^ "Moto Na Maji: Shinnyo Fire and Water Ceremony in Kenya - Shinnyo"..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
^ "Kenyan conservationist bags international award".
^ "Premio "Honoris Causa" 2017 a Kuki Gallmann".
^ "Author, Conservationist Kuki Gallmann Wounded in Kenya". Voice of America. 23 April 2017.
^ William Mwangi (23 April 2017). "Conservationist Kuki Gallmann shot by armed Laikipia raiders, airlifted to Nairobi". The Star.
External links
- Website Gallmann Memorial Foundation
- 60 Minutes Wild at Heart on MSN Video: Kuki Gallmann Video on YouTube
- A Peaceful Future For All - Kuki Gallmann Video on YouTube
- Alle falde del Kilimangiaro 2012-2013 - Kuki Gallmann Rai.tv
- AMREF in viaggio con Kuki Gallmann Video on YouTube
- Balancing Your Life with Ellen Susman - Kuki Gallman Interview Video on YouTube
- Extra Minutes | Wild At Heart | A Flight over Africa Video on YouTube
- Extra Minutes | Wild At Heart | Extended interview with Kuki Gallmann Video on YouTube
- Extra Minutes | Wild At Heart | Reporter discussion Video on YouTube
- Kuki Gallmann Statement to mark World Migratory Bird Day 2014 Video on YouTube
- Premio Masi 2012 Award Ceremony: Kuki Gallmann Video on YouTube
- Strength of a Woman: Kuki Gallmann Video on YouTube
- WINGS - The launching event of World Migratory Bird Day 2006 Video on YouTube
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