This project will provide one month of sustainable income for 15 women in Hoedspruit, South Africa for their work creating artisan crafts and restoring native habitats, in a community where 30-50% of people have no income and elephants are highly threatened by human-wildlife conflict and poaching.
Each year in Africa, up to 30,000 African savanna elephants (EN) are killed by poaching and human-elephant conflict, orphaning thousands of calves. Hoedspruit also experiences high levels of unemployment, with 30-50% of people without jobs, especially women. HERD, our partner organization in South Africa, provides sustainable livelihoods to locals caring for young orphaned elephants. This project provides income for one month for 15 local women who create products for HERD's tourist lodge.
HERD tackles both issues by creating jobs in ecotourism and caring for orphaned elephants who would otherwise struggle to survive without their mothers. Their project, JabuLadies, combines ecotourism, ecosystem restoration, and livelihoods for 15 local women. The women are engaged in making products to be sold at HERD's tourist lodge, such as embroidered placemats and elephant dung paper. They also work on habitat restoration, removing invasive plants and planting native ones.
This project supports gender equity and healthy families by providing 15 women with economic opportunity in a place where most women don't have income because they stay at home caring for their families. Women receive valuable training in artisan crafting, giving them skills they can carry forward, and can work from home. It also supports long-term habitat restoration and elephant rehabilitation, as the tourist lodge is connected to the elephant rehab center.
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