2024 Challenges & Achievements - End of the Year message from Coe, Victory & the Nsefu Wildlife team!
Dear Nsefu Wildlife friends and supporters,
On behalf of Nsefu Team USA and Team Zambia...we wish you and yours a most wonderful and peaceful holiday season and a VERY Happy New Year! This has been a year of blessings for our foundation, great accomplishments, and challenges that all conservation foundations face. But the blessings we have received are because of you. We are humbled and so grateful for your generosity and support and we are working hard to make you proud. Sadly, this year we also lost dear friends and loved ones who supported and believed in us and their loss is felt deeply by our team. We treasure each one of you and will carry you in our hearts.
Nsefu Wildlife has continued to work hard in the field protecting Africa’s wildlife and we have further entrenched ourselves in the community creating strong bonds to help us become more effective and more efficient in the field of conservation. You have helped us keep promises made to the community and to the wildlife and the results have been amazing. Nsefu Wildlife coordinated major events creating conservation awareness to the people of Nsefu and in some cases, with thousands of people attending! Our first ever Nsefu Wildlife “Sports for Conservation” soccer matches were a smashing success with 2K+ attendees, and we look forward to the 2nd Annual next year! It was such a GREAT TIME!
By creating awareness, we are serving both the people and animals of the Nsefu Sector. We also had our first Nsefu Wildlife “Conservation Day” for the community with huge attendance! Our team created and organized conservation skits, dances, conservation quizzes, and fun games for people to enjoy.
The people of Nsefu truly enjoy these unique events in the community and we are teaching people to rethink how they look at their environment and their animals. It’s amazing to see the dots being “connected”. And to further our conservation education...we have a full-time team of five instructors who travel the sector visiting schools and speaking to villages and communities about the importance of conservation and the importance of being good stewards of the environment and champions for the wildlife! We are tackling conservation awareness from all angles!
Our Nsefu Wildlife Rangers continue to work hard alongside the Dept. of National Parks & Wildlife, and we have had many successful operations, arrests, and convictions of poachers. Also, our Intelligence Dept. has been exceptionally effective, and we have made inroads through this highly effective part of our ranger program. And we have WONDERFUL news to share! First off...our Truck Fundraiser for the Rangers was a success, and you helped us raise $16,000 to help us get a new vehicle and we are so THRILLED and GRATEFUL! We desperately needed another vehicle to keep Nsefu on the move! Secondly, at our Toast for Tusks event this past October...supporter Gunnar Sjoegren (See our Donor Spotlight in our newsletter) donated $4,000 towards our need for a borehole (well) to help deal with the ravages of the drought!!! The Dept. Of National Parks and Wildlife approved a location in South Luangwa National Park, and we have lined up the drilling company and have begun! This incredible gift will have a tremendous impact during the recurring droughts by providing lifesaving water for the animals of Nsefu. Your generosity has been breathtaking, and we are truly grateful. If you would like to support our Nsefu Ranger Program...you can donate at https://nsefu.org/contribute-now.
Our Tommy Raskin Women’s Sewing Program housed in the Bonnie Dines Women’s Center continues to thrive in the community and is the hub of activity in the region. Your donations have helped us employ ten full-time women and create a training program for women wanting to learn a viable trade. We help women learn a valuable trade enabling them to earn a living wage to support themselves and their families in our quest to lift girls and women up in the region. We are continuing to make inroads in the School Uniform Program as well. The Women’s Sewing Program is an immense success, and we hope to expand it with the women creating other items for sale in Zambia and for suggested donations in the US and featured at our Nsefu Wildlife events. If you would like to help us purchase more treadle machines to train more women...please donate at https://nsefu.org/contribute-now.
One of the ways we make the greatest impact when it comes to conservation is in the school...instructing children about their animals and their environment. Nsefu Wildlife has two schools. Chabwera, our primary school, and the Nsefu Secondary School we built in conjunction with our friends at Park Lane. Having access to conservation education was paramount to us when building these schools. It is predicted that the student population at the Secondary will increase significantly in the upcoming years putting more kids in front of our conservation education. And we were thrilled with the huge ceremony with dignitaries attending for the official “handing over” of the school to the Dept. Of Education. The people of Nsefu came out big time to celebrate the handing over!! The schools are already a success. and we can always use donations for more school materials, computers, etc. If you would like to support our schools...please donate at https://nsefu.org/contribute-now. And Nsefu Wildlife would like to thank our sister organization, Zikomo Safari, for their continued support in offering students and teachers game drives throughout the national park deepening the bonds between students, teachers, and wildlife in the Nsefu Sector.
Our pioneering Biofencing (beehive fencing) Program has become CRITICALLY important in the Nsefu Sector. With human encroachment in wildlife corridors, the incidents of Human/Wildlife Conflict (HWC) have become a MAJOR problem with both people and animals being injured or killed. Nsefu Wildlife was the first in Zambia to initiate these critical fences to protect crop fields from elephants and we have had 100% success rate with our fencing. But now we need to expand and quickly. Our team has identified critical locations where serious incidents are occurring. Each 1000 meters (about 3280.84 ft) of fencing costs approximately US $1,000. Because of the lack of modern conveniences like we have in the West, i.e. Home Depots... poles are harvested from fallen trees, beehives are made by our beekeepers, and our team travels into town for hardware and wire. Hives are strung along the poles and the “trip” wire strung between the poles is what activates the bees when an elephant hits the fencing as animals try to access food and crops. Elephants are DEATHLY afraid of bees, especially since the bees can kill baby elephants. HWC is a major problem, and we have identified five critical areas in the Nsefu Sector, and we can put your donations to work quickly building these lifesaving fences. In Africa, HWC death numbers are encroaching the numbers of deaths due to poaching...thus making this a PRIORITY in our region and in our foundation. Not only do we need to construct fencing, but we need funding to maintain the fencing as well. If you would like to help support our groundbreaking Biofencing Program, please donate at https://nsefu.org/contribute-now.
We would like to thank everyone who attended our 2024 events such as Rock the Wild, The Nsefu Wildlife Motorcycle Monkey Run, A Toast for Tusks, and the El Cajon Dinner & Concert Series, not to mention countless other events. Your support each year is amazing, and you help keep us running! We have WONDERFUL events lined up for you in 2025, including our first Nsefu event of the year ...The 3rd Annual Nsefu Wildlife Motorcycle Monkey Run winding up at Full Circle Saloon, Saturday, March 8th and cohosted by Clint August of 101KGB-FM!
To say we love and appreciate you would be the “understatement of the century”. Your love for wildlife and your passion to create change is WHY we are here. We would be nothing without YOU. Thank you again for believing in us and our work. We are hoping for 2025 to be the best year ever as we enter our 10th YEAR! We have much to do and we cannot do it without you.
And a huge THANK YOU to our amazing team, both here in the US and in Zambia. We could NOT do this without YOU. We have a team of selfless, hardworking, dedicated, and incredibly talented people. We are so grateful for YOU. Thank you Team Nsefu. We love you and appreciate you!
On behalf of all of us at Nsefu Wildlife...Thank YOU!!!! Enjoy your Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and here is to a smashing 2025 for you and the animals!
Love,
Coe, Victory, and the entire Nsefu Wildlife Team
