An Australian named Damien Mander recruits females to become wildlife rangers to protect the animals in Zimbabwe’s Phundundu Wildlife Area. He has changed the lives of many African women who were previously broken, and he trains them to be fearless soldiers. They now have a purpose in life and can provide food for their families.
Damien, who is a former Australian Special Operations military sniper and Royal Navy Clearance Diver, became an anti-poaching activist when he witnessed the horrible things people did to rhinos and elephants. He decided to use his training skills that he learned from the military to protect these majestic creatures.
In 2009, Damien founded the International Anti-Poaching Foundation, and in 2017 he established the all-female unit – “Akashinga,” which has grown to over 170 rangers and is in the process of training 240 more. In the first 2.5 years of operations, Akashinga (‘the Brave Ones’) made 191 arrests, which helped drop an 80% in elephant poaching in Zimbabwe’s Lower Zambezi Valley. This Valley is critical to protect because it’s home to one of the largest remaining populations of elephants and rhinos left on earth.
Damien and his colleagues look for women aged 18 to 35 who were victims of domestic violence or sexual assault, who were abandoned wives or single mothers, or those who were Aids orphans. Basically, any woman who could benefit from a new life is welcome to join the force. However, first, they have to pass a three-day-long military-style try-out challenge, which involves various endurance and team-building trials. For example, the women have to pack up a 200-pound tent, drag it up the mountain with their legs tied together, and then reassemble it.
Damien, who has “built a career across three continents by bringing fairly hardened men to the point of breaking,” was impressed by the strength and endurance the women displayed. “The distance a person puts between suffering and breaking is what defines character, and these women had it,” he said.
‘The Brave Ones’ are in charge of protecting and patrolling Phundundu Wildlife Area, which is a 115-sq.-mile former trophy hunting area in Zambezi Valley and home to roughly 11,000 elephants. Damien believes, Phundundu is the world’s first nature reserve that’s protected by an all-women unit.
Damien said:
There’s a saying in Africa, ‘If you educate a man, you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman, you educate a nation.’ We’re seeing increasing evidence that empowering women is one of the greatest forces of change in the world today.
Wildlife has returned to Phundundu since Akashinga took charge, and the rangers are even seeing animals on almost every patrol. Damien plans to expand the all-female unit and grounds by employing 1000 women to protect a network of 20 nature reserves by 2025.
