Registered in 2011 and consisting of 20 members, Elerai Youth Football Club is taking on the front row in the walk towards development in Loitoktok Sub County. Its members are young men (Morans) living within the Elerai Conservancy community. The group usually travel 5km to the neighbouring primary school to practice their skills in preparation for their games. The team quickly realised that their collaboration could be utilised to help the community and better themselves financially. Since then, the team has diversified to work on several key development issues in the area.
The group is now involved in rain fed agriculture, buying and selling livestock, environmental management, conservation awareness, afforestation, education sponsorship for local children and selling traditional Maasai beadwork.
The group have highlighted the following challenges within the area:
- Transportation issues due to poor roads, making the delivery of their produce difficult and only accessible by motorcycle
- Finding consistent ready markets for beadwork and marketing jewellery to target consumers. They currently rotate selling beadwork at daily markets in Loitoktok and Kimana
- Water scarcity as they currently fetch water from the local borehole for subsistence only. They also struggle to practice agriculture during dry season as they depend on rain fed agriculture
- Funding for the facilitation of the club, for example uniforms, balls, boots and field markings
-Human/wildlife conflict and the destruction of livelihoods due to intrusion of elephants, giraffes and monkeys