Our many generous guests continue to support our local projects when they return from their African trip.  The people living in villages closest to the tourism lodges have had tourists come and visit their village or school, speak English, buy local crafts, inspire children, donate supplies. These interactions have generated benefits for the local people and have helped them to better  understand and appreciate the benefits of wildlife that helps attract tourists to  their areas. Benefits go beyond tourist visits and extend into philanthropy with support going  towards a number of community development projects, including one of the most important programs, that of drilling water wells. 

Providing access to water to communities is not only vital, it can also have important impacts on the role of women for example. Women are the ones spending hours every day fetching buckets of water for drinking, feeding, cleaning, for households of minimum 6 people. When water wells break down or go dry and they have to walk an even greater distance, their entire days become consumed with fetching water; in some cases they get younger women to accompany them and help them, taking them out of school to do so. Providing water in villages, even if not to actual households, allows women more time to make and sell crafts, work in their fields, help their children with school work. Women in this area are employed in the lodges, as room hands and managers, providing opportunities for women to develop skills, meet other people and earn an income.  

Some tourists return home with a fuller heart and donate large sums of money that help build classroom blocks, a local clinic, feed  school children, and drill water wells.