Protect and Save the life of Our Rhinos

Dear Supporters,

On the 30th of November we hosted yet another fun-packed Pub Quiz fundraiser at our local Mahlahla Game Lodge. The purpose of this event was to finish raising funds for the final touches to our three boom gates that surround our reserve in the Harmony Block. These boom gates play an indispensable role in monitoring suspicious activity around the reserve and keeping poachers at bay.#

Pub Quiz Fundraiser

After some seriously needed upgrades to the living conditions of our security guards, it was time to focus our attention on further upgrades to the boom gates and to acquiring essential radio equipment for the anti-poaching team. It is imperative that the team can communicate effectively to one another in such a vast area where mobile phone reception is not always available. 

This year’s Pub Quiz brought a fantastic crowd of benevolent people from the local community together for a night full of laughter and banter. Movie quotes, bush knowledge and music trivia were some of the categories of questions asked during the pub quiz. The quiz ended with a suspenseful tiebreaker, as it was very competitive until the end. One of the highlights was watching adults run around like children during the scavenger hunt!

Our volunteers worked exceptionally hard and got their creative juices flowing to produce wonderful prizes for raffle ticket winners. Prizes included rhino-shaped cakes, a painting of Karongwe’s majestic male lion and photographs taken of various wildlife on Karongwe printed onto canvas. Volunteers and staff also spent hours the night before baking delicious brownies and scrumptious cookies which were also given away as prizes and sold throughout the night. Some amazing prizes were also generously sponsored by local retailers in Hoedspruit, which included the top raffle prizes of one-night breakaways for two at some of the top lodges in the surrounding area!

All in all, the event was a huge success and the night concluded with some funky dance moves and jovial singing.  In the end we raised over ZAR30,000 on the night, as well as a whopping GBP150 through our online fundraising page! This will be more than enough to not only purchase proper radios for the team but finish the upgrades to the third and final boom gate. This money will go a long way in ensuring the protection of not only our precious wildlife but those who live in the area as well.  

Love,

The Karongwe team