SHONGWENI67 THROUGH THE YEARS

2018: Our first year enabled us to pay some salaries in the first month of operating. Desperate times called for desperate measures and we turned to crowd funding as a means to an end. The handover of the reserve from a state owned company was archaic and sad in that the dilapidated facilities requires that we had to close the reserve for 3 months to mitigate liability to customers. That is how degraded the facilities were. With no capital to improves facilities and zero cash flow - #Shongweni67 kickstarted the journey and provided us with the most basic financial input.

2019: Interestingly this second year of the #Shongweni67 initiative generated less income than the first year. Again, the financial input enables us to increase the income of staff who had, in this first year of operating, never received a full salary.

2020: A public hungry for the outdoors due to Covid19 pandemic really enjoyed the fact that we opened the initiative for everyone to participate in. The event was well attended and our main goal was set: To equip the field rangers with anti-poaching equipment and PPE and to purchase a catering capability to launch a catering division/department at the reserve.
This income was also used for field ranger training that included the field rangers being trained on the Wilderness trail on the Umfolozi. This three day experience included the team sleeping in the wilderness (in big 5 territory) and learning from some of the best trained wilderness guides in the country.

Today, coffee and various snacks are served from our mobile kitchen, and this earns the reserve valuable income.