SAVE Wildlife Conservation Fund Botswana

15/08/2024

River Cleanup – for a healthier environment for all!

In Botswana, we’re eagerly waiting for the ‘leleme la noka’ which translates to the tongue of the river. This is the first water coming in from Angola to fill up our local rivers and the Okavangodelta. For the water to remain fresh and clean, Wildlife Conservation Botswana started a river cleanup in Maun. In this concerted action together with the Wild Bird Bird Trust and Boela Project Conservation Trust, various stakeholders came together in the beginning of August and gathered as much as litter as they could take. Around 150 community members were mobilised and together, we were and are working towards a healthier environment for all. Thanks to lodges of botswana, Great Plains Conservation, Arc Idea Architects, Hydrocon Green, Eco-Sustain, Jerusalema Social Club, Letsholathebe Dental Clinic, Botswana Defense Force, Department of Wildlilfe and National Parks, tawana self drive, Botswana Red Cross Society, Department of Environmental Protection, Maun Lodge and Hyprop Botswana who supported and participated in the cleanup!

The aim of is to protect species through environmental education and wildlife protection with a special focus on rural settlements in Botswana. Follow us for more information on different projects and information from the in !

23/06/2024

First playgroup then primary school! Early Childhood Development makes starting school easy for little Lesang

Lesang Kandonda from Samochima village in attended the SAVE in 2013 and is in grade 5 of primary school now. Eustance Kandonda, Lesang's mom told SAVE: “I brought my child to the playgroup in 2013 and he managed to graduate and was given a certificate. Kids attending the playgroup at an early age benefit them a lot. My child went to primary as a confident child able to express himself. He was able to communicate with teachers at school, he was able to write and even read pictures. Now my child is in grade 5 and he is progressing very well. I will recommend parents to take their kids to playgroups because it’s for free and kids are being developed. I have seen a lot of changes in my son’s education."

SAVE has 39 playgroups across the country and has reached 5571 children between 2020 and 2024. The benefit of our Early Childhood Development ( ) programme is also visible in the fact that we are teaching the kids with our own curriculum that focuses on wildlife but also conveys everything young children need to know before starting school: Counting, writing their own names and being creative. During story time children learn new words and learn how to listen and participate in class and they develop their small motor skills and eye hand coordination when colouring. However, the challenges the communities are facing are mostly related to human-wildlife-conflicts as all our playgroups are located in areas where wildlife crosses human settlements regularly. Hence, our aim is to teach children and adults how to live peacefully with elephants, lions and other wildlife without having to kill them. Understanding that environmental awareness is secondary to the existential needs people in poor rural areas face, we help empowering communities to generate income. In the context of our ECD programmes, this means offering parents the possibility to register their children at playgroups free of charge so they can go and earn a living without having to worry about their kids during the day.

The aims to conserve species through environmental education and community empowerment with a special focus in Botswana. For more information, visit our website: https://save-wildlife.org

28/05/2024

A SAVE Success Story: Boitshwarelo Dichaoto’s garden to feed families 🌱🙌

57-year old Boitshwarelo Dichaoto is a pooler. In the in , this means that he navigates a mokoro – the local version of a canoe – through the thousands of big and small channels of the delta by using a huge stick, or pole. He shows tourists around in the beauty of the delta’s nature or simply uses the mokoro as a means of transport for himself. However, this job does not sustain himself and his family enough throughout the year. Hence, he has started an own horticultural garden with the help of .

Strengthining livelihood activities and socio-economic growth among NG32/35 communities near the Okavango Delta through horticultural mentorship – that is what our Okavango Farming project at SAVE Wildlife ConservationFund aims for. We engaged with local communities close to the Okavangodelta in 2021 in order to start a pilot community farm and to teach people about climate smart agriculture. Boitshwarelo Dichaoto from Morutsha village was one of the early adopters of this mentorship programme. The SAVE team helped him construct of 13 plots and planted green peppers, r**e and onions. In the first harvest of April, Boitshwarelo has managed to harvest 11 bundles of r**e from his plot which was sold to community at BWP 10.00. Dichaoto has also made a promise to donate part of his harvest to his immediate neighbours and will continue motivating other members in the community to participate in horticultural farming to feed their families and generate income through selling to private tourism enterprises in the area as well as community members.

is dedicated to the sustainable conservation of species by empowering communities through environmental education with a special focus on rural communities in the Okavango Delta in Botswana.

19/12/2023

Cheers to our ladies who completed the first phase of the SAVE Women Empowerment projects!
We handed the projects over to the communities in , and . 80 women participated in the trainings led by SAVE and our partners, the Departments of Agrobusiness Promotion, the Department of Forestry, the Department of Crop Promotion, the Department of OSET and the Department of Cooperatives. The participant learned how to register their businesses, how to write a business plan and how to market their products as well as to manage the financial side of their businesses. Congratulations!
Most of the ladies are talented basket weavers whose products are available to the local communities and to toursits. 18 women are also farmers whose fresh products were sold to the Okavango Mokopane Community Trust.
We are proud to promote female run businesses in rural areas where it is not easy to find employment and to sustain livelihoods. Hence, we hope that our projects uplift communities in wildlife contact areas in Botswana and help towards fulfilling the existential needs of the people. It is with community development that we learn to become more sensitive towards the environment, too which is SAVE's goal: To create a peaceful coexistence between humans and wild animals so that the various important species in this habitat can be conserved while humans have solid livelihoods.

11/11/2023

What can you create out of palm tree leaves? 🌴🧺👵🏿
Our 25 ladies from in the in are showing us their basketry skills when they dye and weave the long Mokolwane leaves. The basketry derives from an old tradition that is being passed on from generation to generation . SAVE supports female groups like the one in Nxagara across Botswana by offering finance and marketing workshops so the women can maximize their sales and market the ancient tradition of basket weaving in their country. Wanna know more about SAVE and how to support projects like Women Empowerment? 👉 https://save-wildlife.org/en/press/

11/09/2023

Our cabbages made it to the supermarket! 🤩
After planting seeds and growing veggies with lots of love and lots of organic matter, we have now delivered more than 1000 cabbages to the local in ! SAVE is supporting the community-run in NG32 close to the Okavangodelta. Here, we supply the people with farming equipment, help building and maintaining the farm and we assist with expertise in climate smart agriculture. Therefore, we support community development and food security! The more people we can reach with our ecological produce, the better it is for our environment. And with Maun being the international gateway to the Okavangodelta and to national parks such as and , our partner, the Okavango Kopano Mokoro Community Trust can increase their sales which benefits the local communities. By selling our vegetables here, we also share the results of ecological farming with the travel community as well as with locals living in the city. 🌿

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28/08/2023

Come and work with SAVE! 🐘
Are you an organizational talent with management and HR experience? Are you passionate about conservation, education and sustainable development?
Then you might be the next Operations Manager for SAVE Wildlife Conservation Fund in Botswana.
We’re looking forward to your applications! 👉 [email protected]

See below for job description.

Key roles and responsibilites:
Improve operational management systems, processes, and best practices to enhance efficiency and effectiveness.
Develop, implement, and maintain quality assurance protocols.
Ensuring that assessment strategies are implemented in a structured and coherent manner in line with projects and strategic objectives.
Assist in managing of the organization’s operational budgets, ensuring efficient utilization of resources by all.
Manage and supervise the workforce, including task allocation, setting deadlines, and monitoring performance.
Formulate strategic and operational objectives aligned with organizational goals.

Supervise Human Resources:
Together with the Country Project Director, and the Human Resources Manager, he/she is responsible for identifying needs for staff recruitment.
Drafting of Terms of References together with the project focal persons, as well as liaising with HR and Country Director in the process.
Together with the Country Project Director and Human Resources manager, ensure that appraisals, contract renewals, and recruitments is done in timely manner to minimize gaps on the team.
Conduct regular check-ins with project focal points, as well as with those managed by project focal points, to identify skills and interests on the team, as well as any issues influencing team/staff welfare.

Stakeholders Engagement
Ensures that SAVE maintains close relationships with relevant stakeholders, locally and internationally.
Together with the Country Project Director and project focal points when relevant, identify, develop, and maintain partnerships with relevant actors, clusters/working groups, NGOs, and representatives of relevant NGO forums.
Fundraising
Support the Country Project Director in implementing fundraising strategies and in engaging with potential donors, development of new grants as needed.

Successful candidates will have:
Proven work experience as Operations Manager or similar role
Knowledge of organizational effectiveness and operations management
Experience budgeting and forecasting
Familiarity with business and financial principles
Excellent communication skills
Leadership ability
Outstanding organizational skills

Preferred qualifications:
Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) in operations management, business management, social sciences, or any related field
Five (5) Years or more of working experience

14/08/2023

How do you safe 173 hippos?
Lake in is drying up once again as the River fills it up only slowly. As many as 173 hippos are therefore in danger of getting stuck in the mud when trying to reach the little water that is left. This is and has been life threatening, especially for hippo moms and their kids.
We from managed to secure water and food for them. And the best thing about it: We're maintaining the water supply with the help of a solar powered borehole from where we're pumping water to Nxagara lagoon.
As you can see - and as was the case in 2019 and 2020 - we were able to save hippo lives together with the local community who also benefits form this project as the water can be used by them, as well. Additionally, we employed two people from the community who are maintaining and securing the site of the borehole which has been fenced off. The community now even plans to transform the lagoon into a recreational area for visitors to watch the hippos and to learn about the variety of wildlife.

Would you like to contribute to helping the hippos in Botswana? Check out our website: https://save-wildlife.org/en/wildlife-protection/hippo-conservation-and-hippo-rescue-in-botswana-for-africa-species-conservation-and-animal-welfare-donations/

31/03/2023

Female Entrepreneurs of Okavango Delta 📍

As comes to an end, we celebrate the successful interim status of our Empowering Women project: for 8 months now, we have been working with the women from the villages of , and on the Okavango Delta in Botswana and have achieved about a third of all projects 💪🤩.

But this is just the beginning! The project, funded by the Schmitz Foundation, continues with the aim of training the ladies in the respective business sectors so that they can make their local businesses more profitable. The participants are vegetable farmers or basket weavers and learn all about profitable entrepreneurial skills, marketing strategies, financial administration and management.

Delta

03/03/2023

We invite everyone to join us in protecting the habitat of the Okavango Delta on the occasion of 🌎 World Wildlife Day 2023! Together we can conserve biodiversity and thus protect the populations of 128 mammal species, 500 bird species, 150 reptile & amphibian species and over 1,300 plant species! Let's act and make the right decisions!

We are all part of the problem - but at the same time part of the solution! Everyone can do something! Let's act together for the protection of wildlife and all species!

24/02/2023

17/02/2023

Community Development📍

14/02/2023

You guys must be wondering how we're setting up each and everyone of our 37 playgroups. Yes, it involves a lot of patience and a lot of people. But it's also very rewarding at then end. Here's a little 101 on how to start a playgroup in Botswana:

First, we approach the communities and all the relevant stakeholders. Because without them, there is no project. This means that we present ourselves at the Kgotla, the place where the village elders and representatives discuss the matters of their communities.
After having gotten the Kgotla's approval and heard their take on what the needs of the community are, we proceed with the planning, development and finally building of the structures. Here, the community is involved as well. One of the most popular task by far is the finishing: As seen here in , everybody puts a lot of effort in painting and decorating the classroom building. At the end, the kids who will learn in these facilities, have to feel welcome and comfortable. 🫶🏿
At the same time, we're recruiting our SAVE teachers from the community because it is our goal to empower locals who know best what the challenges in their homes are. We thereby contribute to job creation and education as the teachers are trained according to our own educational curriculum 👩🏿‍🏫 This equips them with the appropriate knowledge for a sustainable environmental education. Finally, parents can register their children in the playgroup and once we've kicked off, teaching can begin. 💪😍

29/01/2023

Geat news from our project in Quqao, Botswana!
30 women will create vegetable gardens on this new plot of 1 hectar. They will farm towards our goal to establish food security and to promote a peaceful co-existence in this wildlife-contact-area.
This is a project in cooperation with

Choose "Women Empowerment" in the dropdown menu and support the project: https://save-wildlife.org/en/donate/

24/01/2023

News from Bots: Our playgroup in is expanding. We are building a new learning center with two class rooms that can host 60 kids in total. It includes a health care station, offices and a storage room. We're planning to be done in August so that our teachers can start teaching the children about their environment.

We would like to thank our partner in this project Share For Smiles!

If you'd like to support us, follow the 👉 for donations :
👉 https://save-wildlife.org/en/

ARTENSCHUTZ. GEMEINSAM. LEBEN.

13/01/2023

1 year - 90% less livestock killed by lions!

Our brings first successes in the communities of . In the past, many farmers in the killed lions to protect their cattle. SAVE's education and herd management has brought about a positive impact. Farmers report that they now want to learn to live peacefully with the . Since the start of the project, our rangers have counted a 90 percent decrease in livestock kills.

Thank you WeekendPost-Insightful for writing about our Engagement!

09/01/2023

The SAVE team completed anti-poaching training with one of the most experienced and renowned wildlife conservationists in Botswana. Mpho Malongwa - or "Poster" as he is known. Poster taught them a series of modules and techniques to help them stop poaching. Thanks to his guidance and expertise, the Lion Rangers are now better equipped than ever to combat the problem. The training covered theoretical as well as practical topics such as:

- Combating poaching for species conservation
- Survival techniques in encounters with poachers
- GPS orientation in the bush
- Tracking animals

Another module focused on a very central element in wildlife conservation: spreading the important message of how abundant wildlife populations are vital for the future of communities. With these newly acquired skills, the Lion Rangers will in future also inspire young people about the topic in the SAVE environmental education clubs in the region.

We are deeply indebted to Poster and the SAVE Lion Rangers for their hard work and dedication in the fight against poaching. They are a shining example of the power of conservation and serve as an inspiration to us all.

26/12/2022

We wish you a Merry Christmas!

Your SAVE Team 🦁

Find more information about our work at https://save-wildlife.org/en/.

Up-to-date reports from the SAVE projects can also be found in our newsletter, which you can subscribe to in the imprint of our homepage.

25/12/2022

We wish you a Merry Christmas!

Your SAVE Team 🦁

Find more information about our work at https://save-wildlife.org/en/.

Up-to-date reports from the SAVE projects can also be found in our newsletter, which you can subscribe to in the imprint of our homepage.

conservation

23/12/2022

It is almost Christmas, and we would like to thank you for your support, which has made SAVE's work possible this year.

Today, there are 37 children's projects in Africa, the Women Empowerment Project was launched together with the Schmitz Foundation, the Environmental Education (EE) Clubs were reopened and the Climate Smart Agriculture Project was successfully expanded. Through the SAVE Lions lion conservation project, we managed to reduce livestock losses by 90% in just one year, thus defusing the conflict between humans and lions. Now we are already planning new projects for 2023, such as another lion conservation project Next Generation.

There was also a lot to do for species and environmental protection in Germany. For example, a species conservation project was initiated together with the University of Wuppertal, which aims to inspire young people for the ecological diversity of the Bergisches Land with a series of events around the topic of species conservation.

With this in mind, we are already looking forward to the new and hopefully equally successful year and wish you a Merry Christmas, relaxing holidays and a Happy New Year.

Your SAVE Team 🦁

👉 More info about the projects: https://save-wildlife.org/en/

15/12/2022

😇

😃 🙌🏽

The Ngami Times - Thank you for sharing this news!

15/12/2022

😃 🙌🏽

The Ngami Times - Thank you for sharing this news!

13/12/2022

Also this year, the water masses from the delta, which normally feed the lake, failed to arrive. The SAVE helpers were confronted with a dramatic picture: 23 hippos were stuck motionless in the mud and at least 10 of them had already died of starvation and thirst. The animals were exposed to the burning sun with their sensitive skin. They were hippopotamus cows that remained there together with their babies.

SAVE could not stand idly by and acted immediately!
The first immediate measures were coordinated to save the remaining animals. 1:

In the first step, helpers were recruited on-site and equipped with tents and camp beds.
2. 160 bales of hay were brought to Lake Ngami by truck, as well as huge 5,000-litre water tanks and troughs to save the animals from dying of thirst.

The hope was that after this invigorating first aid, some animals would be able to extricate themselves from the mud and move toward other bodies of water. Some of the animals were indeed rescued under their own steam.

But for the seven remaining animals we had to start a complicated rescue operation with many helpers in cooperation with the Botswana Wildlife Ministry and local fishermen:

To pull the animals, weighing up to 2,000 kilograms, out of the mud, a channel was dug to lure them to the truck. Then they were anaesthetised and transported into the waters of the Okavango Delta. A delicate and complicated operation that only succeeded so well because SAVE had already gained a lot of experience in the field by rescuing 168 hippos in 2019.

We explicitly say a big thank you to all supporters: their partner Omogolo Wildlife Trust, the hardworking volunteers, the Botswana Wildlife Ministry, and all donors who supported the SOS Hippo action.

01/12/2022

Support local female businesses in with their handicrafts. You can help women like Dikutshafalo from near the Okavango Delta. She delivered her first Mokolwane Basket collection to us, which was created during the project.

Big extra: For a donation of 100 euros or more, we are giving away seven traditional hand-woven baskets (Mokolwane Baskets)! Dikutshafalo works on one basket for about a month or longer, because this includes collecting and drying the grasses, weaving the baskets themselves, and transporting them to the city. So you get a truly unique piece!

Your donation goes directly to the project, which supports women in selling and marketing their locally-made products. For this purpose, we organise bookkeeping and management courses at three different locations.

If you would like to order more baskets, please contact us via DM.

To find out more about the project and how to donate, click here: https://save-wildlife.org/en/donate/

Delta

23/11/2022

🎓 This year, 519 children celebrate their wildlife diploma 🙌🏽

In 23 communities neighboring wildlife areas, such as the Okavango Delta, the time had come for 519 children from SAVE's Early Childhood Development program to be presented with diplomas. In the environmental education program for preschool children, these diplomas are, of course, only symbolic and are not an official qualification.

Nevertheless, they mean a lot to the children: namely, that the SAVE environmental education program has not only taught them basics like how to write their name and count to 20, but that they are well on their way to becoming the wildlife experts of their country - even before they enter elementary school.

Early childhood education runs under the umbrella of Education for Conseration - SAVE's environmental education program for different ages. More than 15,500 children have already participated in projects, and more are expected to join next year. Currently, there are a total of 36 projects in Botswana and because it is so successful, the first project just started in the Democratic Republic of Congo 😍!

👉 More info about our children projects: https://save-wildlife.org/en/children-projects/

education conservation

15/08/2022

The Early Childhood Development program continues to grow! Environmental playgroup in Daunara 🦁 🐘 🦏

With the , SAVE aims to give children in opportunities for a better while inspiring them about the benefits of peaceful between people and .

By the end of 2025, we aim to reach 62,000 (about 90%) children and youth in areas of through education for conservation - are you with us?

👉🏽 Learn more about the Playgroup: https://save-wildlife.org/en/an-environmental-playgroup-opened-in-daunara/

Education for Conservation

10/08/2022

Today is World Lion Day 🦁. A good reason to focus on the endangerment and the necessary protection of the big cats:

❗️ the African lion population has declined by 43% in the last twenty years. There are only about 20,000 lions left on the continent.
❗️ many lions are shot by farmers because they want to protect their livestock. This exacerbates the conflict situation.
SAVE wants to change that!

👉🏾 let's protect the lions together: https://save-wildlife.org/en/species-protection/africa/lion-protection/

03/08/2022

😍😍😍