The ManicaPost
Stephen Ephraem Post Correspondent
WONDERS never cease to happen. This has been true with the Malilangwe Trust, a non- profit making organisation which is producing wonders as far as tourism is concerned in the south east region of Zimbabwe. The trust runs the Malilangwe Wildlife
Reserve in Chiredzi.
Barely eight months after it was involved in a public private partnership with the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) the trust has unveiled another partnership which focuses on tourism for school children.
In a quadruple partnership with Centre for Cultural Development Initiative (CCDI) whose flagship is The Great Limpopo Cultural Trade Fair, Chilo Gorge Safari Lodge and sugar blue chip company, Tongaat Hulett, the trust as well as Chilo Gorge offered each a five day bush camp for school going children in Chiredzi district.
The partnership saw CCDI availing raffle tickets to schools. The raffle was earmarked the 2016 edition of the Great Limpopo Cultural Trade Fair which ran from 28 to 31 July. Winners of the raffle would get a treat at Malilangwe and Chilo Gorge separately. Tongaat Hulett helped with logistics.
The Malilangwe bush camp took place from 13 to 18 August this month in which nineteen students comprising of six boys and thirteen girls, CCDI staff and Chief Tshovani based at Hakamela Camp in the conservancy. Activities included game viewing, discussions on community development, and conservation lectures. In his maiden address during the bush camp, The Malilangwe Trust’s community development coordinator Mr Shepherd Mawire urged communities to conserve natural resources that are remaining in the country.
Said Mr Mawire: “Man depend on nature. It is vital that communities prioritise preserving our environment. As the young generation, you should take a lead role in ensuring that our communities develop through conservation initiatives.” Students who experienced the bush camp could not hide their joy after the luxury. Ten year old Grade 5 pupil at Chingele primary school Learnmore Mtasa expressed gratitude toward Malilangwe for empowering the rural poor. Hakhesa Hanyani an eighteen year old Upper Six student at Alpha Mpapa High said that she is now an ambassador as far as wildlife conservation is concerned.
In 2015 The Malilangwe Trust headline in three tourism public private partnerships (PPPs). The first PPP for 2015 was in June when it successfully trans-located eight rhinoceros from Malilangwe Wildlife Reserve to Moremi Game Reserve in Botswana’s Okavango Delta on a country-to-country agreement.
The second PPP was when the trust collaborated with Tongaat Hulett and Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe in the refurbishment of Buffalo Range Airport in which $212 000 was injected in the project. The third PPP was video PPP project which the Trust twined Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) in the promotion of four south east Zimbabwe tourism destinations in a 17 minute movie named “Zimbabwe South East.”
The Malilangwe Trust markets it lodges under Singita-Pamushana flagship.
For feedback Text or WhatsApp +263 739 106 507, email: [email protected] or visit www.southeasttourism.wix.com/ southeasttourism
