Wilderness Botswana, through its non-governmental organisation, Children in the Wildreness conducted a second phase of food hamper donations of its partner communities in Okavango Community Trust villages this week.
The donations follow of the first part, which was conducted last month, aimed at cushioning the impact of the el-nino induced drought. Due to the drought, widespread in Southern Africa, farmers have not been able to plough their field.
To this, and with anticipation of better rains the company also donated seeds to the community.
The result, of the low rainfalls has had devastating effects on the food security of households, and according to Wilderness Botswana board Chairman Kabelo Binns – this motivated the company to step in and make food donations.
Leading the donation exercise this week, Binns said Wilderness Botswana had a long history of working with the OCT communities in different areas impacting on their livelihoods.
Binns said besides the food, the seeds they donated would also go a long way in ensuring food security in area, should the rains allow them to plough and harvest. To ensure good harvests, it was imperative and in the communities’ best interests to plant their fields soon as the rains are satisfactory.
With climate evident in the region, given the extended heat waves that have been experienced, the OCT communities who have no other opportunities need extra ordinary assistance.
Wilderness was instrumental in donating tons of food hampers to the OCT communities during the Covid – 19 era, when its employees who come from the same area were hope as the operations remained closed.
While the rains have remained scarce over the years, further compounding challenges to the livelihoods of these communities, human wildlife conflict also remains a thorn on their side. Elephants caused extensive damage to crops in their ploughing fields while predation decimates cattle farming.
Wilderness Botswana is also engaged in other conservation related projects with various NGOs that work towards reducing human wildlife conflict, while promoting co-existence. Some of these projects include the communal herding programme, cluster electric fencing of ploughing fields, bee keeping project within ploughing fields abd drilling of boreholes among others.
