Conservation Heroes - Zambezi COVID-19 Food Programme

Children in The Wilderness (CITW) Zambezi Region would like to thank the generous donors and sponsors – our amazing Conservation Heroes – who are making such a difference by providing the crucial funding needed to help meet basic food needs. Over the last few months, we have been able to distribute over 1 100 food packs, the equivalent of over 45 tonnes of food, to families who are most in need. This includes food packs generously donated by sponsors to many of the scholarship students around Victoria Falls, Hwange, and Tsholotsho.

Containing essential food items including maize meal, rice, peanut butter, sugar beans, salt, cooking oil, and soya chunks, the food packs will help hugely towards the food insecurity brought about by COVID-19. The poverty issues faced by many families, many of whom were already struggling, have been exacerbated. Thus, these food packs have taken some of the pressure off beneficiaries in providing much-needed sustenance for their dependants.

With an average of six dependants per family, the food packs have helped over 5 000 people with food, and we hope to see this number grow.

There is so much gratitude expressed at each of these distributions and it is so heartwarming to see the joy and relief that the food packs provide. We would like to thank all of our generous donors, including the Wilderness Safaris Chairman’s Foundation, Grand Circle Foundation, Antoinette MacKenzie, Hunter Valley Grammar School, AAC, West Towson Elementary, as well as our many sponsors, for their generosity and thoughtfulness during this turbulent and challenging time.