The name Great Plains Foundation has become very popular among the residents of the five villages that make up the Okavango Community Trust (OCT) – Seronga, Gunotsoga, Eretsha, Beetsha and Gudigwa primarily due the to the community work it has been doing for the past 15 years to improve livelihoods in the area.
Great Plains Conservation (GPC) under whose portfolio Great Plains Foundation falls: is a tour operator with safari camps in the Okavango Delta, some of which are operated in the Duba concession which is under the custodianship of Okavango Community Trust.
The relationship between GPC, through its foundation started in 2010 with the latter’s role focusing on community support and livelihoods in various areas – that include education, agriculture, health, skills development, community socio-economic support among others.
Unpacking the impactful journey the foundation has had with OCT communities over the years, GPC Managing Director – Botswana Daphne Kadiwa paints a beneficial relationship where livelihoods have been uplifted through interventions targeted at identified areas of need.
The great plains foundation came into being in 2010, to primarily take care of the OCT villages through empowerment and capacity building after consultations on the needs assessment.
The journey, that spans 15 years has been efficacious in that various projects and programmes initiated to aid growth in the villages have continued to bear fruit while the foundation has in store to further enhance economic growth and self-sustenance in the OCT villages.
Owned by National Geographic Explorers in Derek and Beverly Jourbert, the foundation under GPC puts more emphasis on environmental education, hence the education sector -schools were and continue to be the main beneficiary.
Great Plains Foundation have over the years supported schools in the OCT with the needed teaching material every term of the year, Kadiwa emphasised that this was continuous where they engage with schools for their needs every term.
This programme has since metamorphosed into the Kids’ Camps where GPF takes children who show interest on environmental issues into safari camps operated by Great Plains Conservation Botswana where they are taught environmental conservation. The existence of Eco-Clubs in these schools have made the selection process for kids easier, with the annual camps conducted at the end of every year.
Kadiwa has a wish for these children, “This initiative is very popular among the schools in the area. My wish is to have some of these children growing into the tourism industry and working in some of our camps.”
A programme to train the out of school youth in an effort to empower and capacitate them with skills has also been ongoing since 2023. These are skills in areas like housekeeping, carpentry, housekeeping, with the addition of first aid, farming and leadership added for next cohort. Upon completion of these training most have been absorbed into the safari operations of Great Plains in camps. An assessment to establish those that meet the criteria for training is usually done for each cohort prior to their starting the training.
In the area of sport and wellness, the foundation supports the villages through the sponsorship of a competitive football tournament. The sponsorship by the foundation covers prize monies, trophies and are also assisted with balls and football kits.
In support of the agriculture sector to ensure food production and security, GPF together with Wilderness Botswana, Eco -Exists and OCT started the Gando Clusters. The project, which is also a mitigating factor for human wildlife conflict saw the electric fencing of clustered ploughing fields to keep elephants away. It further helped with ploughing implements to help farmers plough.
“In 2024, we injected a tractor into the project. Following the tractor donation, we realised that the one tractor was not enough and when DiKgosi asked us to help with walking tractors, we were happy to assist,” Kadiwa said.
The foundation has since donated to the five villages, five walking tractors with implements which were handed over to the communities last month.
Another major donation to the OCT villages by far from the foundation has been the community ambulance that was handed over to the health facilities in the five villages last year. The ambulance has become handy in transporting patients to health facilities including those referred to major facilities in Shakawe and Maun.
Still on the health space, the foundation has since 2019 been running an annual eye testing clinic for school kids where kids from all the five villages are tested – and those that require eyes reading glasses are provided for free.
This has generated a lot of interest from the parents who are faced with vision challenges, and had started also sharing the reading glasses with the kids. Kadiwa has revealed plans to include elderly in the testing exercise, with a view to also give eye glasses to those in need.
One of the most popular initiatives is the Sola Mamas – where in 2019 a group of women were selected by the community and were trained in India on solar engineering at Barefoot college. They would then formally start their work in 2022 following the Covid -19 stall. Solar Mamas, with the assistance of GPF, supply and install solar lighting packages in the area. The project has since a significant improvement of their livelihoods, while also lighting up many households with affordable solar lights. The initiative has also had a positive impact on school children -who have the much-needed light to study at home.
Great Plains Foundation has more projects rolled up its sleeve that will be unfolded in the near future and among them and at the heart of the MD, is the upcoming housing initiative for the underprivileged. The housing initiative has an underlying conservation theme to it in that the houses will be built from bricks made of recycled glass to make glass sand. The glass sand is then mixed with cement in moulding the bricks that are harder than the normal ones.
Also on the cards, the Foundation has set out to construct cattle dips in the OCT villages which will help cattle farmers control tick bourne diseases which recently ravaged the eastern Okavango panhandle.
