Wilderness supports 18,000 people across Southern Africa during worst drought in decades

April 2025 – Leading conservation tourism company, Wilderness, delivered 8,000 emergency food parcels (totalling 220 tonnes) to approximately 18,000 people facing food insecurity across Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, between November 2024 and January 2025 – bringing relief to its partner communities during Southern Africa’s most devastating drought in decades.

 

“Our partner communities have experienced one of the most severe droughts in recent memory. Naturally, our teams spend a lot of time in these communities, and saw first-hand how devastating the drought was for the people living there, as well as for the livestock and wildlife they rely on. Without decent rainfall, communities faced water shortages, resulting in crop failures and livestock mortalities. As a company that has been built on community empowerment and shared impact, we recognised our responsibility to help some of our most vulnerable partners during this time of crisis, and are grateful that we could alleviate some of their suffering as a result of this initiative”, said Vince Shacks, Wilderness Group Head of Impact.

 

Thanks to generous support from the Michael and Karen Stone Family Foundation, Wilderness was able to respond to the state of emergency quickly through the implementation of its Drought-relief Nutrition Programme in November 2024, bringing immediate relief to those most in need. 

 

“True to our strong roots of community collaboration, the programme was carefully planned in consultation with community leaders and school development committees, in order to ensure that the food parcels contained the most appropriate essentials, such as maize, rice, sugar, and other staples, needed by the recipients. We were able to quickly mobilise this support, as it was not long ago that our regional teams went through a similar process when we delivered more than 670 tonnes of food relief during the Covid pandemic”, Vince added.

 

The food parcel deliveries continued for three months, through the peak of the drought, targeting 14 vulnerable partner communities in Botswana and Namibia, and 31 schools in Zambia and Zimbabwe, which are also beneficiaries of Wilderness’ Children in the Wilderness (CITW) educational programme. Wilderness assisted them with ongoing nutritional support until the arrival of the late – but very welcome – rains allowed livestock to recover, and farmers and communities to plant crops and vegetables in order to start supporting themselves again.

According to Miss Kundi Gambiza, community leader and Headmistress of Mizpah Primary School outside Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, also a long-standing partner of CITW, this kind gesture is going to take them a long way: “Our children are all excited. They enjoy coming to school, with some even asking if they can come to school on weekends”, she said.

 

In Zambia, Miss Bessie Mutema, Deputy Head of Twabuka Primary School, shared similar sentiments: “The work Wilderness is doing is helping our children acquire the education that they need. Thank you so much, let’s continue working as partners for the better future of our upcoming leaders”.

 

Wilderness’ Drought-relief Nutrition Programme has proved a monumental effort, underlining the company’s long-held commitment of standing by their partners in both the good times and the bad.

 

In addition to the immediate response of food relief, Wilderness continues its longer-term commitment to sustainable community support across its regions by providing vegetable seeds and fruit trees for community and school gardens, ensuring resilience beyond emergency aid.

 

“We join many of our partner communities in celebrating the recent rains across most of the regions; however, we know that some people are still feeling the effects of the prolonged drought. We recognise their realities, and hope that our food-relief initiative has helped to alleviate the worst of their situation, until harvest season arrives soon”, concluded Vince.