CONSERVATION
Let's make a difference together
Untamed Safaris believes that the very best way to safeguard wilderness areas and fight against the loss of wildlife is to ensure that the local communities that live adjacent to wild animals benefit from the existence of wild spaces.
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For every booking Untamed Safaris receives we support various initiatives for communities in Africa.
Read more about our projects below
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CAN PROVIDE...
100
USD
SCHOOL LUNCHES FOR 25 CHILDREN
FOR A MONTH IN ONE OF THE ISOLATED SCHOOLS BORDERING ZIMBABWE'S HWANGE NATIONAL PARK
Project 1: Feeding the community
Supporting critical food supply in remote Zimbabwe communities
To combat hunger in these increasingly frequent drought years, Untamed Safaris supports a locally organized school lunch program with our partners Imvelo Safari Lodges in Zimbabwe.
Western Zimbabwe, known as Matabeleland, is an area of erratic rainfall, which can cause droughts and serious crop failure. The villages that are located just south of Hwange National Park are further burdened by human-wildlife conflicts with elephants raiding crops and predators attacking domestic livestock. Food security is a problem and very few students attending the rural schools around Hwange National Park have any lunch and often only receive one meal a day at home. As a result, these children are often not up to the long walk to school, attendance drops drastically, and student grades suffer due to poor concentration.
To combat hunger in these increasingly frequent drought years, Untamed Safaris supports a locally organized school lunch program with our partners Imvelo Safari Lodges in Zimbabwe. The funds raised are used to buy maize meal (corn meal), red sugar beans and sunflower oil to prepare the Zimbabwean staple food sadza (a stiff corn meal porridge like polenta) and beans. This provides these hungry students a hearty and filling lunchtime meal. Sometimes, a nutritional drink serves as a lunch; this is called “mahewu” and is packed full of energy.
Depending on the year’s harvests, the lunch program typically runs throughout terms 2 and 3 and is part of a larger school lunch program that feeds over 2,600 children across 11 different schools, 8 of which are within a few kilometres of the National Park boundary. This is equivalent to about 350,000-500,000 school lunches annually.
Thank you for supporting this important program!
To find out more visit Imvelo Safari Lodges
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CAN PROVIDE...
100
USD
1 OPTHALMOLOGICAL SURGEY
TO A PATIENT LIVING IN A RURAL VILLAGE BORDERING ZIMBABWE'S HWANGE NATIONAL PARK
Project 2: The Power of Vision
Supporting critical eye care in remote Zimbabwe communities
For every booking Untamed Safaris receives, we provide a donation to fund one Opthalmological surgery to a patient living in a rural village bordering Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park.
In the rural villages along Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park boundary, people do not have access to dental services and eye care is often overlooked; women cooking over open flames and in the smoke, community members working outdoors with eyes unprotected from the blazing sun...this significantly impacts people. Providing much needed dental and eye care to the rural villagers living along the boundary is essential to their wellbeing, in turn this is fundamental if they are expected to take care not only of themselves, but also of the wildlife they live with. Supporting local healthcare programs plays a big part in facilitating conservation initiatives.
A yearly Smile and See program identifies patients who urgently need cataract and ophthalmological surgeries. The 2021 Smile and See program, coordinated by our partners Imvelo Safari Lodges, delivered 5 mobile dental and eyecare clinics in rural villages around Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe. Over the course of the program, over 80 people were recognized as needing an ophthalmological surgery.
Over the next few months, these individuals will be treated by an initiative led by Imvelo Safari Lodges. Three types of operations are carried out annually: the most common one was Extra capsular cataract extraction, followed by peritectomy and lastly a combination of both. Patients are sometimes as young as 30 years old and these surgeries are life-changing.
Thank you for supporting this important program!
To find out more visit Imvelo Safari Lodges
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CONTRIBUTES...
100
USD
TO ENSURE RHINO ARE PROTECTED
IN THE IMVELONGAMO RHINO SANCTUARY SOUTH OF ZIMBABWE'S HWANGE NATIONAL PARK
Project 3: Rhino Protection
Supporting the protection of critically endangered wildlife species
For every booking Untamed Safaris receives, we provide a donation to various wildlife protection NGO's and units to help them conserve and protect Rhino.
The Cobras Community Wildlife Protection Unit are a unit of 30 local men employed by Imvelo Safari Lodges. They carry out patrols and snare sweeps, alleviate human wildlife conflicts, carry out conservation education and wildlife management, engage in firefighting efforts...amongst a number of other activities! They operate on communal land just south of Hwange National Park, an area into which elephants and predators regularly overspill.
The Cobras have been trained in first aid, conservation education, communications, weapons handling, conservation law and rhino monitoring to be able to best support and protect the area's wildlife as well as alleviate human-wildlife tensions. The Cobras have been selected amongst many; their training is arduous and they have developed mental and physical competencies that make them respected across the area and able to inspire younger generations to become guardians of wildlife.
The Cobras Community Wildlife Protection Unit’s biggest pride is their work with the Imvelo Ngamo Rhino sanctuary, a long-term vision to bring rhino back to Hwange through an innovative model of community-based conservation in which the communities reap benefits first hand.
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Thank you for supporting this important program!
To find out more visit Imvelo Safari Lodges