Rhino and Elephant Conservation Project

Travel With Purpose - A Grandmother Story: I absolutely love watching videos of baby elephants. I just can’t get enough baby elephant viewing. I watch – giggle - repeat! Of course, ALL babies are cute, but the sweetness of these “someday gentle giants” captures the heart of my grandmother-ness. I find myself overwhelmed with love, compassion, tenderness, and joy as I observe their innocence and playfulness. Recently, I did some research about elephants and identified why they appeal to me. Elephants are emotionally intelligent, demonstrating emotions like grief, joy, and empathy. They mourn their dead, comfort each other, and form strong lifelong bonds. They are led by a grandmother, the Matriarch and the babies are raised by “the whole village” – mother, siblings, aunties, and Grandma. One day, while enjoying my morning coffee and watching videos of baby elephants on Facebook, an advertisement for African Safari's came up, WHAT? I’d never considered seeing elephants up close. I searched for affordable options and found Travel with Purpose. “Would you like to feed, and walk and have breakfast with elephants? Come to Africa to help preserve and protect animals from extinction by volunteering.” My heart started beating faster as I thought about... Travel With Purpose - A Grandmother Story: I absolutely love watching videos of baby elephants. I just can’t get enough baby elephant viewing. I watch – giggle - repeat! Of course, ALL babies are cute, but the sweetness of these “someday gentle giants” captures the heart of my grandmother-ness. I find myself overwhelmed with love, compassion, tenderness, and joy as I observe their innocence and playfulness. Recently, I did some research about elephants and identified why they appeal to me. Elephants are emotionally intelligent, demonstrating emotions like grief, joy, and empathy. They mourn their dead, comfort each other, and form strong lifelong bonds. They are led by a grandmother, the Matriarch and the babies are raised by “the whole village” – mother, siblings, aunties, and Grandma. One day, while enjoying my morning coffee and watching videos of baby elephants on Facebook, an advertisement for African Safari's came up, WHAT? I’d never considered seeing elephants up close. I searched for affordable options and found Travel with Purpose. “Would you like to feed, and walk and have breakfast with elephants? Come to Africa to help preserve and protect animals from extinction by volunteering.” My heart started beating faster as I thought about volunteering at a wildlife conservation in Zimbabwe and working with rhino’s and elephants. Where do I sign up? I chose “ The Rhino and Elephant Conservation Project” in Africa, Zimbabwe, through The Great Projects. I could travel with purpose – vacation and volunteer at the same time. The mission of the project is to focus on conserving the “Big 5” animals of Africa: Lion, Leopard, Elephant, Black Rhinoceros, and Cape Buffalo. The Black Rhino is currently at high risk of extinction. The program cost approximately $1900 which included airfare, airport pickup-drop off, and all meals and accommodations for 14 days - all in exchange for helping with conservation upkeep. This seemed like a perfect arrangement for me. I arrived in Africa with great anticipation and excitement. The daily schedule was rigorous: Up at 5:00 am. Out by 6:30am on a wildlife game drive to track rhino’s or bird watching. Back for a delicious organic breakfast, then out again to build a rock bridge, back for a luscious lunch. In the afternoons we were busy repairing or installing fencing or picking up elephant dung from their overnight boma. A delicious dinner followed by free time (to journal) put a satisfying end to a fabulous day. During my stay, I moved 50# hay bales, watered trees, planted vegetable cuttings on an organic farm, painted a metal container for a school library and much more. I was outside everyday enjoying a view of the beautiful African landscape and majestic wildlife; elephants, rhinoceros, giraffes, zebra’s, the Sable Antelope (Zimbabwe’s national animal), different types of deer and antelopes, Cape Buffalo, a crocodile, unique birds, an ostrich, monkeys, baby turtles, and a cobra snake. We had daily interaction with local children walking to school that we picked up along the way. These children as young as 5 years old walk 3-10 miles to school every day. We visited a local village and spent half a day learning their customs. We made peanut butter, danced to the African rhythms and shared a traditional meal. We learned to track animals by their footprints, do game counts and record observations of rhinos. What an education. Learning about the extinction of the Black Rhinos reminded me of the extinction of our American Bison, a sad reminder of animal poaching. We observed White and Black Rhino’s with babies and a newborn during my tenure. Observing baby rhinos up close gave me that same “giggly” feeling I have with baby elephants. It must be the awe mixed with joy that bubbles up in me. Feeding Black Rhinos was an unexpected bonus for sure. They make a squeaky baby sound that puts this majestic animal’s innocence in perspective. *I met three magnificent elephants. Mack is the bull and Mande the female calf. Being able to touch, hug, and kiss this magnificent gentle giant was breathtaking. I was overwhelmed with emotion and started to cry but I felt comfortable, natural and emotionally connected. This was by far the highlight of the trip for me! We walked with them, beside and behind, and watched them swim enjoying pure childlike fun. We fed them by hand and had breakfast with them. I tear up just recalling the experiences. I still feel their energy and miss them. *Now for my last elephant acquaintance - Nzou – the Matriarch of a buffalo herd. Yes, you heard that right. Nzou, is known as the Matriarch, the Queen of the Buffalo, or the elephant that thinks she’s a buffalo. Baby Nzou was orphaned 40 years ago. She was “introduced” to Mack and Mande but they did not accept each other. She ran away. Because elephants are social animals (especially females), she found her way into a herd of buffalo. They accepted her and started following her lead, communicating as elephants do with her low rumble. Nzou – the matriarch of her buffalo herd is now a grandmother going on 8 generations of buffalo. This “travel with purpose” was probably the most significant experience of my life so far. I’m hooked. I’m already anticipating my next experience. It will probably be in Costa Rica caring for rescued sloths and facilitating the nesting-hatching-release of baby turtles who are facing extinction. There seems to be no limit to the opportunities for me to make a difference in this way. Stay tuned for more stories. Grandma Brenda (Show More)

Just returned home after a fantastic week at the Rhino and Elephant Conservation Project. My husband and I stayed at the beautiful Numwa House with 10 other guests. The accommodation was lovely, our host was fantastic, the house staff and chefs were outstanding. The activities themselves were excellent, really well planned, varied and informative. The manual labour aspect was enjoyable and never felt like work due to the great team dynamic and our guide/rangers who were on hand to help, tell stories and play games. We did more than I expected in such a short time, saw incredible wildlife and have made so many great memories and friends along the way. Having never done anything like this before, I'm now planning our next conservation holiday!

I really enjoyed getting to know all the locals. They let us in very warmly into a part of their world and made it easy for us to adapt to all experiences. Additionally, the memories we shared with the rhinos, elephants, and just the nature itself are unforgettable. It is amazing how they combine wildlife experiences with maintenance work and community visits so that we get an almost complete understanding of the culture.