Naturally, there is a lot of attention for animal welfare in and around Hoedspruit. You can visit various shelters where injured animals or young without a mother are taken care of.
Animal welfare goes however hand in hand with human welfare. Poachers, for example, are often extremely poor people from communities with high unemployment rates, which see poaching as a way out to earn money to support the family.
We therefore also want to put the spotlight on the importance of the work of Aka Ani NPC, a non-profit organisation, founded by one of our appreciated neighbours on the Zandspruit Estate.
Aka Ani NPC
Aka Ani (= "we build together") supports different projects in the area around Kruger National Park. The goal is to advocate for the conservation of wildlife areas by building strong rural communities through social enterprise and development opportunities.
During Covid 19 lockdown the women from the village created a community garden to grow food that was in short supply. As the eco-village expanded so did the garden and created a long term sustainable village project.
Aka Ani also supports minority groups like children with special needs.
Visiting one of the projects
Depending on the availability of the Aka Ani team, it is possible to visit one of their projects in person and to contribute to a good cause with a direct donation and/or some volunteer work.
This will be a unique opportunity to interact and understand more about the challenges and resilience of the less privileged among us.
The beautiful children we served during our stay provided my teenagers the opportunity to give without expecting anything in return.
What they actually received was worth more than gold. They received the kindness, love and the friendship of these families 10,000 miles away.
These gifts will last a lifetime.”
Monique, USA
More information and donations
To learn more about the projects of Aka Ani, and to financially support the organisation you can visit their website: www.akaani.org
If you are interested to visit one of the projects during your stay, you can send an email to info@luxuryvillainafrica.com
