Personal message

I am not a swimmer by any means, but oh boy, I AM A PASSIONATE CONSERVATIONIST!

I am so passionate about wildlife and wild open spaces and the protection of it that I am brave or crazy enough to take on the ocean and swim 8 miles to raise the desperately needed funds to support the Project Rhino teams on the ground!

I have dedicated my life to conservation – I see the desperation and devastation in the field every day. I see the struggles that most conservation teams face to try and do the jobs that they are required to do with completely insufficient resources.

Here are some staggering facts: In 2022, 448 rhinos were murdered in our game reserves across South Africa, BUT, this did not stop the dedicated Project Rhino team from working around the clock to fight the onslaught. The Project Rhino Airwing flew 403 hours on patrol and reaction across  member reserves (+/- 800 000ha), they found 12 poached rhinos, and an additional 2 wounded rhinos that were successfully treated, 5 calves from poached adult females were located and successfully moved to rhino orphanages to ensure their survival.

In 12 months, the Project Rhino K9 team removed 885 snares on patrol (that could potentially have been 885 animals killed in the snares), responded to 112 emergency call outs, apprehended 33 criminals, retrieved 3 illegal firearms, recovered stolen goods from 17 incidences, recovered 9 high jacked vehicles, responded to 10 armed robberies and retrieved narcotics from 3 separate incidences worth R15million.

The Project Rhino team reached 11 466 school children in 2022 at 42 different events, with their conservation education message.

Since March 2020 they supported communities around protected areas with over 2.7 million meals, each meal delivered with a conservation message.

They hosted 29 training workshops that ranged from K9 training to advanced rifle training and ranger training to empower the rangers on the ground to do their expected jobs competently and confidently.

Swimming 8 miles in the Oceans is a challenge – but it is nothing like the challenges these teams face daily!

Please support me to raise the desperately needed funds for the Project Rhino teams to keep making a difference!

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