Koinonia Baloyi tells us about some of the fascinating projects that the African Bush Camps Foundation runs – funded in part through your stay in their camps & lodges. The Foundation has excellent projects that empower women, and a nifty project that prevents lions from stealing cattle in communities around the national parks. This is critical to reduce human-wildlife conflict. And Koinonia also tells us some stories about visitors she has had in Zimbabwe.
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African Bush Camps: https://africanbushcamps.com/
African Bush Camps Foundation: https://www.africanbushcampsfoundation.org/
Hwange National Park: https://zimbabwetourism.net/portfolios/hwange-national-park
Building a Lion Boma: https://www.facebook.com/africanbushcamps/videos/the-build-a-boma-initiative-aims-to-support-the-abcf-human-wildlife-conflict-eff/794342985828963/
Koinonia on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/koinonia_b
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Episode 10 - ABC Foundation with Koinonia
[:[00:00:09] André: Welcome, welcome, everyone.
I'm glad to have you back again on my podcast. In my last episode, we spoke to Beks Ndlovu from African Bush Camps. And in today's episode, we get an insight into the work and achievements of their foundation. My guest is Koinonia Baloyi, who runs the African Bush Camps Foundation, which does a lot of good work in the community surrounding the various camps and lodges that ABC has.
Hello, Koinonia. Welcome.
[:[00:00:39] André: You're very welcome. Koinonia, tell us about yourself. Where are you from? Where did you grow up? And how long have you worked at the Foundation?
[:[00:01:04] André: For three years. And you've enjoyed it?
[:It's just been an amazing journey over the past three years.
[:[00:01:59] Koinonia: If it helps, the description of "I was that person on the dance floor" is, pretty much how most of my trade engagements are going. We did quite a few, this year, and we had all of our trade guys doing a dance challenge.
[:[00:02:20] André: Give us a quick overview of what the foundation does And let's bear in mind that it's not only people from the tourism industry listening. There are also regular people that might be interested in Africa.
[:What that means is that where you'll find a Property or experience in Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia. There is some work that the foundation is doing within those particular areas.
And the main reason for that is twofold. Firstly, as a business, we did not want to just be about the bottom line. For us, it was more important to make sure that we're leaving a long-lasting legacy for the communities in the area we operate and that for us was making sure that. "How can we actively invest in these surrounding communities?" because a lot of them rely on tourism.
So as the foundation, we have a very, focused mandate in terms of making sure that we're supporting the communities as well as supporting the conservation work that's happening. Essentially, what that looks like is firstly investing in local schools and education.
[:
You've got five learners that are sharing one textbook. There's some kids that are walking over 10 kilometres coming to school hungry. So, when we're looking at our schools, it's making sure that the infrastructure, the facilities and the resources at the school are suitable and they're well developed. But how do we ensure that we're supporting their families at home?
Making sure that families can put food on the table, because if they can't put food on their table, they're going into the national park and poaching. So we're supporting projects that are looking at skills development, at entrepreneurship. Some of them are local gardens, that just allow the community to grow their own crops so they can feed their families.
So that is making sure that communities are self-sustaining, they're well invested in and well developed that they can take care of themselves.
You also very involved in conservation side of things, not just the communities who live, next to or in the parks, but you also do a lot of conservation work. Tell us about that.
Absolutely. So, conservation is a very critical part of our business because at the end of the day, when people are coming to Africa, when they're coming to our camps, they're here to see the wildlife. So the work that we're doing in the national parks is having boots on the ground that are doing anti-poaching work. They're recovering snares. They're doing the necessary arrest, the constant patrols that are happening, making sure that we're conserving wildlife for the future generation. On top of that, there's work that we're doing with the community in the area of conservation.
Human wildlife conflict is a very big issue that we face in the National Park, especially, because if a lion leaves the National Park, goes into the community and kills off their livestock, it's eating at their livelihood, which means that, uh,
[:Um, and so what you're mentioning now about human wildlife conflict. That is still happening now, where animals are leaving the park and going into the villages. Are these parks not fenced in?
[:So you do have wildlife that's leaving the national park, going into the community area in the same way that you have the community getting easy access into the national park. If they're going in to do, you know, to do any type of illegal activity.
[:[00:06:39] Koinonia: not necessarily. I just finished a baseline assessment that we did in Botswana, just outside of the Chobe National Park.
And one of the main issues that the community had mentioned was one of their biggest challenges is human wildlife conflict. So, in the dry season, you'll find that, uh, because there's a scarcity of water, there are a lot of elephants that are moving around in the area. During green season, because there's more availability of water in other areas, they'll find that the elephants are moving further away from the village. Whereas in dry season, they'll find that there are more elephants.
They also are seeing lions that are coming as far as, Linyanti, heading towards the community. And a lot of it has got to do with the fact that livestock is easy game.
So, when you think of a lion preying on an impala versus preying on a cow. A cow doesn't know that it's in danger. So, if you find you've got your cows that are grazing out in the open field, they are more vulnerable to, to predators and lions, because of the fact that as the season changes, the wildlife's behaviour changes. And once they discover that there's easy livestock in the village, they'll tend to spend a lot of time moving in that direction.
[:[00:07:58] Koinonia: Yeah. So we've got what we call our lion boma project. And essentially what the lion bomas are, it's a cloth like material that kind of covers the kraal.
The kraal is, which is essentially the enclosement that the community keeps their livestock in at night. And what the lion Bomas are, is that it's a cloth like material that covers the outside of the kraal. What that does is that it reduces visibility for lions. So, when the community keeps their livestock in those lion bomas, when there's a lion in the area, they can hear the cows, but they can't see them. So, because they can't see them, they won't attack. So, we found that in the communities where we actually have active lion bomas, the community hasn't lost any livestock because it's kept safe in those Lion Bomas.
The additional benefit of the lion bomas is that they're very beneficial for land regeneration. So, it's a mobile boma that the community can move And what that does is that in the three, four months that one community member has had the lion boma, the manure and the faeces from the livestock has helped to fertilize the soil, which makes it great for planting once it gets to the next planting season.
[:[00:09:01] Koinonia: The other thing that we're doing in those areas is what we call our lion guardians. And our lion guardians are essentially "watchmen of the borders". So every day they will go out and patrol the border that separates the national park and the community.
And they're essentially looking for any tracks or indication of lions that may have come into the area. In the instance that they do identify that there is a lion that's moved in this direction from the tracks, they will blow a vuvuzela, and that notifies the community that they need to herd their cattle and their livestock into the lion bomas because there is a potential threat or danger in the area.
[:Just before we move on to one or two of your other projects that I find quite cool, tell us how do you finance the projects that the foundation works on?
[:What that means is that every donation that we receive goes 100 percent towards the projects. That also allows the foundation to focus on doing what it needs to do, to help the communities, because all of its funding and its resources go directly towards the foundation.
Secondly, we've got a general levy. So as part of the booking, there's a small donation that's contributed towards the projects. Because a lot of, the world is moving into things like conscious travel, moving into impact travel, where people are asking themselves the question:
"Is this trip that I'm booking, to this particular destination making a difference and an impact where I'm going?" And we're able to say, "yes, just by you booking to travel with African Bush camps, just by you staying in our camps, there is a portion of your booking that goes towards supporting the projects".
The last part of it then is, guest donations We've got a lot of people who travel to our projects, see the work that we do, you know, get involved in the impact that we make, and they want to give back.
[:[00:11:06] Koinonia: So, one of my favourite phrases is, "When we empower women, whole communities rise". And when we're, as the foundation, looking at woman empowerment and looking at projects that are building and developing women, ultimately, we want to make sure that we're investing in what is the pillar of the community.
So, we are supporting local skills projects that are run and owned by women. Projects like a group of women doing traditional basket weaving in Botswana or the Vukani Group, which makes beautiful jewellery and, napkin rings from recycled magazines and paper.
One of the interesting things about Somalisa is that the robes that are in your room are robes that are made by the Thandanani women, which is a local group of seamstresses. And I cannot tell you the amount of robes that have gone missing purely because the items are so amazing and people just love the fact that it's so unique, it's so creative. It's bright, vibrant colours. And that's a big part of what we're doing, making sure that, these small projects are being supported and promoted, that helps them, generate income and feed their families.
[:[00:12:09] Koinonia: The second project that we're running is more focused in the camps, which is our female guides program. So in 20, 2021, we launched our female guides program, which is a two year program that is aimed at training and developing female guides. When we launched that project in Botswana, we recognized that the industry was actually very male dominated.
It's been interesting that the female guides, when they stepped into the space, what they'll tell you is that, "I didn't think I could do this job. I didn't think I could drive such a big game vehicle. I didn't think I could change a tire". It's breaking down the barriers that, women have had in their minds about what they can or can't do for themselves, but it's also breaking down barriers in the industry by allowing us to create spaces for women to thrive in other roles, than The typical job opportunities in tourism.
[:[00:13:05] Koinonia: It's actually been incredible to see how our camps, especially our male guides rally behind the female guides. So the female guides, they shadow the male guides on the job.
The reality of it is that a lot of our male guides grew up with that experience that Beks had. You know, they grew up learning and understanding wildlife purely because they were out in the field herding cattle, or they were curious and tracked, you know, and tracked elephants, all day long.
Most of our female guides, if not all, don't have that experience. You know, they've, they've had to be at home. They've had to be in the kitchen. So, our female guides have to rely on the male guides to learn some of those, intricacies.
And it's great to see that they're not gatekeeping that information, they're sharing it. There's knowledge transfer and there's a healthy give and take that's allowing, our guides as a whole to move forward.
[:I'm sure that you and your team have experienced a lot of amusing and or heartwarming moments, through the work that you've done in the various projects. Can you share one or two of them with us?
[:And I think one of the highlights that sticks out for me is that earlier this year, we hosted a group of guests, and we visited Maunga Primary School. One of the guests, works for NASA or worked for NASA. It's got something to do with rockets. So it just feels better to say NASA, but in that rocket space, in that rocket space.
And one of the things that we did with her was that she hosted a class for grade five, sixes and sevens that was focused on a harnessing solar energy.
So we helped the learners build solar fans. That for me was really exciting. It was so exciting to watch the learners learn something new, but also just watching the guests that were sitting at the tables, helping the learners, put together the solar fans. I was sitting with one of the guests and she was about 13, 14. And what was exciting was that both her and I had no idea what we're doing.
The moment that we took the fan outside and the sun hit, and it worked, we were there high fiving, everybody, just because we were so excited. So, it was so exciting to watch the kids come alive by being able to learn something new, something valuable, something that's going to contribute towards their academic development, but also to watch the guests be so invested in that moment.
[:[00:15:43] André: You said that guests can volunteer in your nutrition programs? What does that look like?
[:That gives guests an opportunity to tour the school, see the work that we're doing but also volunteering at the nutrition program. So, they help with serving meals to the learners, washing up and cleaning up dishes afterwards. It's a nice hour that you get to spend giving back.
It's also just a nice way to interact, you know, meet the kids, play some sports with them. We've had guests that are playing soccer during mealtimes.
You know, our schools are not museums, we don't want people to come in and disrupt the learning or, look at the kids like they're displays, but the nice thing about being able to spend time at a nutrition program or playing with kids outside of classes, that it's a great way to interact.
[:So, what you say about not disrupting is very, very important. And I'm glad that it works in that way where you, focus the visit on the break time.
[:[00:17:26] André: That's good to hear.
Some people that, are listening may be planning a trip to visit you or some other countries. And apart from making donations to the foundation, I know that some people are saying, well, “what can I bring from home that would help one of the, let's say one of the school visits. Should I be bringing bags of sweets as treats? Should I be bringing books? Should I be bringing pens?”.
How do you answer questions like that, which I'm sure you and your team get quite a lot as well.
[:[00:18:10] André: And then there's also the added need of, things like chalk, the teachers are always running out of chalk. I think seeing your projects that you do, firsthand, really helps people understand the countries that they visit. I, for example, I'm a massive fan of Johannesburg.
It's important to visit to see Soweto, to speak to people who live there, to visit the Apartheid Museum, to get an understanding for the country and why people interact the way that they do.
And in the same way, if you're going to Botswana, as an example, and you're only seeing the animals. And you have a great ranger who's helping you to see the big five, who's maybe helping you to understand that the small animals are pretty cool as well.
But, if you then also have the opportunity to see how the communities live there? What's the history of that? What are the challenges? I think a lot of people are looking for that- it might be used to often -"authentic experience", but, that experience where people get to see more than just a pretty beach or a lovely lion.
[:I did a hosted safari and we had lunch at one of the local cocktail bars. And when you ask guests, you know, what was the highlight of your stay? They're going, it was that. You won't find that experience anywhere else. And it's, unique moments in the village that really Bring it out for people that are, that really want to travel and experience holistically, the places that they're going to.
[:[00:20:09] Koinonia: Nowhere near glass top, I can definitely tell you that. I think what's interesting is that the only part of the cocktail bar, that is a "cocktail bar", is the name. That is as far as it goes in terms of cocktail bar. We were in Dete, which is about a, two and a half hour drive from our Somalisa Camp in Hwange.
And, you know, you arrive and it's a, it's a, it's, it's like a Shebeen. You know, now I can't explain a shebeen, but it's, it's, it's pretty much like that.
[:Uh, sometimes it's in an old shipping container. Sometimes it's in a corrugated iron hut. And it's, uh, it's a meeting place where people come and sit and drink beer and talk about life, love, and the universe.
[:Like, we always want to sit outside, by the table and there's always that scramble getting chairs from next door, getting a makeshift table for next door. And it's that experience is just, it brings it alive. I remember one of our guests saying that what he really loved about being in the village is that - you're visiting someone's home.
It had that feeling of, "I've arrived at someone's small business in the back of their house. And this is just such a great feeling because now I'm meeting a whole new community of people that I’ve never met, never experienced and this is fully elevating my experience and my time in Zimbabwe".
[:[00:22:25] Koinonia: What's so interesting is, I think for us it's been great to see how welcoming and receptive that the community is. They understand the importance and what tourism is contributing towards the community as a whole. The community loves having the guests around and I haven't found it to ever feel like this is a museum and this is a show.
I remember one of my guests, John, he was so excited. He's generally a greeter. He likes greeting and waving at everybody. So driving through the village in Zambia, made him so happy because everyone is always waving.
But it was just that, like in the morning when you're driving, everybody is happy. They're smiling. They're waving at you. The kids are waving at you. And I don't think you can fake that kind of hospitality. And I think part of it is also just realizing that the only person who can really tell your story, as authentic as your story is, really capture what your experience looks like, is you.
[:
[00:23:28] André: I like to end the episodes with questions on favourites and I have two for you Koinonia: first question, what is your favourite animal and why?
[:[00:23:40] André: Oh, I'm so glad you didn't say the elephant, like Beks,
[:[00:23:45] André: and that's really hyena. Why? Tell me why?
[:[00:24:16] André: are actually cuter than you think, if you actually take a couple of minutes to look at them.
[:[00:24:41] André: Absolutely. I'm with you. They're, they're very misunderstood animals, I think.
[:[00:24:47] André: And last question, which of your projects is your favourite?
[:[00:25:08] André: Koinonia, thank you so, so much for joining us. It's been absolutely inspirational to chat to you and to pick up on your energy and to hear about all the amazing work that you do. Thank you so much for your time.
[:[00:25:23] André: In this conversation with Koinonia, we spoke about the ABC Foundation and the work that they do, both in the community and on the conservation side, in the villages, around their camps and lodges. About how they try to contain human animal conflict, when elephants or lions leave the parks to come and find easy food in the form of livestock at the villages. I'll add some links in the show notes so that you can see what a kraal and a boma look like, if you don't know.
We also heard about the inspirational projects to help uplift women, as well as the educational and nutritional programs they have in schools, and how valuable it is for visitors to spend time in these villages and communities to get to know each other. And that this can even take place in a cocktail bar that is unlike any you have seen before.
Thank you, everyone for listening, please share this podcast with your friends who you think might also like it. And feel free to send us any comments or questions on the podcast platforms or Instagram.
See you next time.