Conservation is the name of the game

Turnup | Travel
Jul 21, 2017 · 5 min read

Turnup.Travel teamed up with Versatile School of Photography for a fantastic full day photographic safari at Nairobi National Park dubbed #PhotographyInTheWild aimed at raising awareness about depletion of wildlife. The main objective is to encourage the society to be part of the conservation narrative by telling stories through the lens while engaging in fun activities. It was truly a special moment seeing so many young people coming together for a very worthwhile cause and probably the biggest cause we will all undertake in our lives.

Source here

#PhotographyInTheWild was such a refreshing event to participate in. So many times and rightfully so, we feel the conversation about conservation does not ignite much excitement among the people that matter the most in this country, the youth. This is a problem we need to tackle in this country and give it a new face altogether.

It is a problem that has allowed so many animals to get slaughtered across the whole continent and left some species numbers at sparingly low numbers. There are just not enough people caring about this problem but every now and then, I get a great dose of hope when I see people come together and find exciting ways to change what we need to change in this country. At Turnup.Travel, that is our mantra. Channeling our energies towards novel ways of not only marketing our beauty as a country and as a people, but also finding super fun interesting ways of doing it. Versatile Photographers got it absolutely right the first time and if this event was anything to go by, there is a bright future after all for all our national parks and reserves.

Our co-founder, Brian Gatimu with Rozzy of Versatile Photographers. It’s always a good time!

Wrangling up 37 professional and amateur photographers and nature-lovers to spend their whole Sunday at a National Park and all within 2 weeks is not an easy thing to achieve. Nairobi National Park deserves way more credit than Nairobians give it because there are people out there fighting for our parks and they are doing amazing work but as millennials we to need to be at the forefront of every battle towards being a more prosperous country. On every front. Conservation is one of these battles. Versatile Photographers has provided an excellent way to do this and we at Turnup.Travel are absolutely thrilled to be a part of this journey. We are very much looking forward to the next park or reserve that we take over and create more magic. And what’s a great cause without great food, tasty choma, flowing beers, superb company and even a dazzling gift-giving ceremony at the end of the festivities. Simply brilliant.

At the end of it all we go gifts to take home! Thank you Versatile Adventures!
Father and son goals! Learn and play together!!
David Macharia — CEO of Versatile Pictures

A case of social media for conservation

The Most Eligible Bachelor campaign begins when a creative director is in Olpejeta Conservancy for a weekend getaway with friends. They visit Sudan, an aging white rhino, and the last male white northern rhino in the world. On hearing his story, they realize that just like themselves, Sudan is a lonely bachelor looking for his perfect match. This sparks a campaign idea: Let’s put him on Tinder, a global dating mobile application for humans, and then brainstorm on how to make a date happen. Result: a campaign to get Tinder users to swipe right for donations towards potency treatment for Sudan.

“Kenya’s Water Man”, Patrick Kilonzo Mwalua, on the other hand is a water vendor who sees wild animals dying in Tsavo West National Park due to drought. He then decides to do something about it — starts delivering water and digging watering holes to save the animals. He starts posting pictures on Facebook and soon enough the story is picked up and goes global. Result: donations from across the world.

These two campaigns signal the changing face of conservation in Kenya driven by locals and getting global attention. It’s inspiring that little acts of kindness and sticky issues do not need the big backers to kick off, but are initiated by people who simply saw a challenge and decided to act on it. What more can we do in the community by leveraging power of social media to raise awareness, and convene like-minded people to mobilize resources? There is just a mismatch of brilliant ideas and resources, and social media platforms could bridge this conservation gap and break stereotypes.

We are looking forward to do more initiatives and trips around conservation, education and definitely bring some action to our world class parks, reserves, orphanages and conservancies.

About Turnup.Travel
Turnup.Travel organises bespoke trips, craft destination marketing campaigns and helps brands leverage travel and unique experiences to engage millennials.To work with us, drop us a note through trips@turnup.travel.

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Turnup | Travel

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We plan trips, organize personalized holidays and film tourism content–all year round. Welcome aboard! Run by @TheFlyingKenyan & @MuthuriKinyamu.

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