Community | Londoloza Trust

Community support

The name "Londoloza" means to "protect" or "look after" in the Ndebele language of Zimbabwe. Protecting or conserving wildlife however is not the job of only the Parks and Wildlife management Authority, but to the citizens - starting with the community around the parks. This is after all the heritage of their children and children's children.

Community involvement is what will differentiate Londoloza Trust from other conservation efforts.

The trust is an initiative of Henry Nehwati, who was born in Lukosi village in Hwange and therefore he is a "son of the soil". Henry is passionate about the community, having seen first hand that the community was paying the price of having the wildlife, for example, the loss of livestock by lions and hyenas and the destruction of crops and property by elephants, but they are getting none of the benefits or "peanuts" (no pun intended).

The Trust believes that there is another way, a "holistic approach" to conservation where this approach includes the community in conservation.

It is simple, a community that feels the benefit of the "tourism dollars" will see the "connection between wildlife and community" and then they will be inclined to protect the wildlife (e.g by reporting poachers) as well as to send their sons and daughters to help by becoming rangers and other support to the industry.

Londoloza Trust/Hwange Rural District Council Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)

In particular the trust will utilise its agreement and signed MOU with the Rural District Council (RDC) to ensure the community is supported.

For us it is critical that the local communities get the following benefits:

Empowerment
Development
Education
Preservation of culture
Understanding and mitigation of human/wildlife conflict

Volunteer initiative

Volunteers will benefit through learning about culture and working alongside local people, supporting projects with necessary skills. This will ensure projects are completed within the allotted time

What areas of support are critical to us?

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Project 1.

Schools & Education Support

Getting children to value conservation is critical for the next generation of conservationists. After all "charity begins at home". The School programme support will provide a "framework" for the children to see the benefits from the tourism and create "good will". It will include the following:

Developing a conservation curriculum in schools (e.g learning about animals);
Providing equipment for children (e.g chairs, books, pens, blackboards);
Introduction to the digital age (e.g computers);
Improved infrastructure (e.g better schools, toilets and clean water sources).

Project 2.

Community Support

In addition to nurturing the children, the wider community will get the benefit including through:

Building and development
Water and sanitation
Health and medical support (e.g HIV/AIDS suport)
Sports and coaching
Nutrition
Vulnerable child and orphanage support
culture preservation
Environmental protection initiatives