2021 Challenges & Achievements - End of the Year message from Coe, Victory & the Nsefu Wildlife team!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of our wonderful friends and supporters.
Team Nsefu hopes this letter finds you happy and healthy. We are praying that the nightmare of COVID leaves our lives and that once again the world can find some kind of normalcy after such an incredibly difficult time. Lives lost, lives changed, and lives put on hold. The impact of this virus will be felt for years to come for people and for animals. To our friends who stood by us through yet another difficult year…THANK YOU!
As you can imagine foundations like ours got hit hard financially but we had some supporters who truly came through for our team and we are eternally grateful, like our wonderful friends Chuck and Judy Wheatley who have been with us since day one. We can promise you no one is stretching your hard-earned dollars farther than we are and no one is working harder to have those dollars create true long-lasting impact in the field.
Despite the pandemic, 2021 proved to be a benchmark year for Nsefu Wildlife. Cofounder Victory Wallace and her husband David now live fulltime in Zambia and our teammate Andre Gascoigne and I spent the summer there where we hit the ground running working with all of our programs and teammates. Missing the chance to work on site in 2020 put us behind in executing some programs we hoped to have in place heading into 2021 but we moved swiftly and things are on track. While there, we interviewed people within the organization and outside of the organization to get a sense of the impact your foundation was having in the Nsefu Sector. I am proud to tell you that we were “blown away” by the response. Nsefu Wildlife has been fully embraced by the people of the sector and the people in the Nsefu Sector want to see us succeed. I can tell you that is not always the case with other organizations in the territory. His Royal Highness Senior Chief Nsefu has been a huge supporter of our foundation as well and he has graciously donated several pieces of land for our projects including the future Demian Wallace/Nsefu Wildlife Conservation Foundation Center and the future Nsefu Wildlife Bee Farm. We are so grateful for him. Here are some 2021 highlights to share with you.
Our Nsefu Wildlife Rangers continues to amaze in the region with our ranger team dramatically decreasing poaching in and around South Luangwa National Park. Nsefu Wildlife works hand-in-glove with the Zambian Dept. of National Parks & Wildlife (DNPW) in short and long patrols throughout the year. Because of their diligence and excellent work, the numbers of elephants, giraffes, and more have INCREASED in the region and we are thrilled!! And we just had BIG news in this last quarter that our Nsefu Wildlife Ranger Team arrested a very big poacher operating in the region! He had continually eluded authorities but WE GOT HIM and he is now doing hard time! And our team also broke up an illegal lumber operation which is critical because Zambia is facing a deforestation crisis. Also, we hope to raise funds so our Ranger Team can be trained in 2022 for the Quick Response Force (QRF) in conjunction with the DNPW. Our team will cover the Upper Lupande region and because our ranger homebase is located at Milyote Gate in South Luangwa National Park, this will cut call response times dramatically to catch the bad guys. Rangers won’t be deployed from the DNPW headquarters when there is an issue in the Upper Lupande. Instead, Nsefu Wildlife Rangers will respond. This will be a critically important piece of the anti poaching strategy we have and further entrenches us with government wildlife operations.
>>>LEARN MORE ABOUT THE NWCF RANGER PROGRAM<<<
More stunning news came to light this trip in that not only has Nsefu Wildlife dropped poaching DRAMATICALLY in the sector, but we found out that our foundation has been directly credited to practically eliminating the “bushmeat” trade in the sector. This is the practice of selling the remains of animals killed in the bush to be sold on the side of road etc. This trade was rampant in the sector up to when we started our foundation. This means that our foundation has literally saved thousands of animals alone since our inception in 2015. Our rangers are respected by members of the community and the message conveyed by the foundation throughout the sector has taken hold. This relationship has truly changed things for wildlife. Also, our foundation was recently acknowledged by the Welsh Guards who are deploying a team to work with Zambian troops to fight poaching in January. We are honored to have been mentioned on their social post. Also, we would like to thank Scott Edwards and Lowstar GPS for their support of our ranger operations.
Our Primary School Chabwera (K-8) built in 2017 now serves over 300 students and our Secondary School is near completion! The Secondary School is being built and operated in conjunction with Park Lane International School. This school will serve over 700 students with projections of over 900 in two years. This means between our 2 schools over 1,000 students will learn about the importance of their wildlife and their natural resources in our mandatory conservation curriculum. Furthermore, we have introduced conservation clubs into area schools. By teaching the children about the value of their animals and their land…we are ensuring a future for the people and the animals of Nsefu. The children are the future of conservation and we are fully dedicated to supporting them in any way we can.
“Thank you” to our wonderful supporter Gary Dines for stepping up for the women of Nsefu. His donation is building the Bonnie Dines Women’s Center which is currently under construction and upon completion… the Women’s Sewing Program will be housed in the new building. The Women’s Center will also have a storefront for Nsefu Wildlife goods and for tailoring by the women. The team also sewed hundreds of school uniforms for our Chabwera School and Nsefu Wildlife paid for the uniforms for families who couldn’t afford them. Many kids drop out of school if they don’t have a uniform. The school uniform truly is the great equalizer in school. Furthermore, our women’s sewing program was the first in the Nsefu sector to make masks to deal with the pandemic. The Women’s Sewing Center is the hub of activity in the village! You can always hear our ladies singing every day while they sew at the center. It is the foundation’s intention to make 2022 the first year where our sewing program turns a profit in order to help support our foundation’s work.
Our pioneering beekeeping/biofencing program serves a dual purpose in the sector. Honey production provides economic opportunities and the biofencing helps combat human/elephant conflict (HEC). We are happy to report that our biofencing is outperforming in every way and has a 100% success rate of stopping elephants from trampling crop fields and gardens where we have it installed in the village. Biofencing works because elephants are deathly afraid of bees and the fence line of hives works as a natural deterrent. Farmers that become beekeepers can earn an income from the sale of their honey and can protect their fields at the same time. It’s a win-win for Nsefu. We have high hopes for this program and are expanding it around the sector in areas with high HEC. We also look to have our “bee” farm established within two years on 9 acres donated to Nsefu Wildlife by Senior Chief Nsefu. This is another program we aim to have profitable by the income from honey production to help underwrite our other programs. Locals will be employed to maintain the bee farm and we will establish a training program where people can learn beekeeping, hive construction, and biofencing on site.
>>>LEARN MORE ABOUT THE NWCF BEEKEEPING PROGRAM<<<
Your foundation is on the move and we are creating a significant impact in a very short time span. This is only possible because of you and your support. Conservation takes funding and we have a lot of people employed in Nsefu to help us grow in order to save more animals as well as human lives. Our strategy is WORKING! 100% of your donations go right into action! Our motto is, “Extinction? Not on our watch”. Join us!!
Wishing you and yours true joy this holiday season and a wonderful New Year!
Thank you,
Coe, Victory, and Team Nsefu
And don’t forget to make your tax-deductible donations before the end of the year!
