Our Impact – Community Development Projects
SUPPORTING OUR COMMUNITIES AND PROTECTING THE PLANET
We believe in building partnerships with local communities who are our neighbours, who live alongside our wildlife and wilderness areas. Community Development projects are implemented after consultation with community leaders. This ensures that together we find mutually beneficial solutions for the both the community and the ecosystem.
These projects vary from education to nutrition and gender empowerment to agricultural initiatives. We support local business and promote local arts and crafts. All are aimed at empowering the community while respecting their heritage, culture and traditions.
Goal to sustainable guest amenities
Project name: Rwanda Banana Leaf Slipper Project
Property involvement: The Mantis EPIC Hotel and Suites, Akagera Game Lodge, Kivu Marina Bay Hotel and Kivu Queen uBuranga
Strategic Partner: Hirwa Foundation
Location: Rwanda
Challenge:
Find a sustainable solution to the imported single-use plastic guest slippers.
Solution:
By utilising banana leaves, an abundant local resource, to produce biodegradable slippers that reduce landfill waste, therefore contribute to a positive environmental impact.
Impact:
The Hirwa Foundation, a local NGO, coordinates the production and distribution of these slippers. The project not only ensures that the artisans have a steady income but also empowers the community by promoting traditional craftsmanship and sustainable practices.
Empowering locals as tour guides
Project name: Locally guided
Property involvement: The Mantis EPIC Hotel and Suites
Strategic Partner: Nyagatare Village and Citybuddiz tourism training providers
Location: Rwanda
Challenge:
Finding innovative ways for tourism to support local communities, particularly in terms of employment opportunities. Eco-tourism and sustainable travel depend on conserving the environment but, equally important, are integrated and collaborative partnerships with local communities.
Solution:
The Mantis EPIC Hotel and Suites supports tour guides from the local village of Nyagatare in Rwanda. These guides undergo comprehensive training to become certified through Citybuddiz, a responsible training provider which aims to empower young people. The purpose is to create more diverse and actively immersive activities for tourists. Our guests can book a variety of professionally guided nature experiences, conducted by these community-based tour guides, on foot or by bicycle.
Impact:
The training of the local community to be accomplished tour guides has created employment opportunities as well as offering unique experiences to guests. It’s a win-win situation, with guests participating in unusual activities, while creating jobs for members of the community of Nyagatare.
Water brings life!
Project name: Borehole Project
Property involvement: Zambezi Queen Collection by Mantis
Location: Namibia
Challenge:
Lack of access to running water. Closest water source was either via a 10m deep collapsed water well or a hippo and crocodile infested river situated a great distance away from the village
Solution:
Sinking of boreholes to help communities have safe and convenient access to water that assists in their efforts to grow crops for subsistence farming (with a focus on fish and corn), to feed their families and create a future that extends beyond the grant system.
Impact:
Improving the quality of life for the community through water security. The first borehole was completed in November 2020 in the Maliyazwa Village. Additional boreholes will be piped to various strategically positioned outlets to allow for even distribution within the community, serving at least 400 people.
Restoring dignity
Project name: Empowering Female Students
Property involvement: Zambezi Queen Collection by Mantis
Strategic Partner: Leafline
Location: Namibia
Challenge:
Research shows that some young women miss up to 50 days of school a year, during their menstrual cycle, due to the lack of access to feminine hygiene products and sanitary wear.
Solution:
Commissioning an eco-conscious supplier to design and sew, reusable, washable sanitary towels. Delivery of the sanitary wear coincides with a sex education and gender empowerment workshop.
Impact:
Restoring dignity while educating and empowering young African women. This project has enabled female students to attend school during their menstrual cycle.
A sporting chance
Project name: Empowerment through Sport
Property involvement: Zambezi Queen Collection by Mantis, The Mantis EPIC Hotel & Suites
Location: Namibia, Rwanda
Challenge:
In Namibia, three nearby community conservancies take turns to host league soccer and netball tournaments at their local school fields – which need to be clean, presentable and tournament ready.
In Rwanda, students keen on playing tennis do not have the appropriate facilities to practice or play.
Solution:
The Zambezi Queen by Mantis team interacts with the different host communities, introducing them to environmental conservation, as well assisting and guiding them on hosting sporting events.
The Mantis EPIC Hotel & Suites provides tennis coaching for six children from the local village school every Friday afternoon.
Impact:
The sports’ days boost morale and the ‘friendly’ community rivalry uplifts everyone’s spirits. A bonus is that it is healthy exercise too! The community conservatories are now proud to host the events and make sure the fields are tournament ready. Players proudly wear uniforms, for the first time ever, thanks to a donation by Zambezi Queen Collection by Mantis.
The teams form a melting pot of older school children, police officers, teachers and members of the community in general. The tournament also attracts spectators – family, friends and neighbours – making these sports’ days integral to community cohesion.
The children playing tennis are exercising, improving their tennis skills and the love for the game is increasing.
Helping fight hunger
Project name: Meals for School Children
Property involvement: Mantis EPIC Hotel & Suites
Location: Rwanda
Challenge:
The 600 young school children at the local government school, situated 15 minutes from the hotel, often do not have a decent daily meal.
Solution:
Once a month our hotel kitchen and beverage trainees prepare and deliver delicious, nutritious meals to the school and feed the 600 learners. The Hotel has assisted with the completion of a school kitchen, which now has three cooks and provides ongoing assistance with cultivating vegetables on the school grounds.
Impact:
Feeding bodies and souls. You can’t teach a hungry child. These balanced and nutritious meals help the children’s concentration and learning. By providing assistance to complete the building of a kitchen on the school’s premises, enables the school to cook and provide daily meals for the learners and is helping them move in the direction of self-sufficiency.
Improving literacy
Project name: Staff Literacy Programme
Property involvement: Mantis No5 Boutique Art Hotel, EPIC Hotel and Suites
Location: South Africa, Rwanda
Challenge:
Finding ways to increase child and adult literacy skills and instil a love of reading and learning. Literacy – being able to read and write with understanding – is critical for communication, and personal development. It is the foundation of education.
Literacy is essential for many reasons, one of the biggest is that when family members can read and write, it helps break the cycle of poverty.
However, due to circumstances, several local South Africans and staff at Mantis No5, were not able to complete their education.
Solution:
At Mantis No5, a dedicated staff learning area, equipped with pre-loved books and infographic material, has been created. This is aimed at encouraging self-paced learning to increase vocabulary and literacy while instilling the joy of reading. Some local school children are also improving their vocabulary and reading skills under the guidance of passionate hotel staff, willing to give of their time to this important effort.
The staff from Mantis EPIC Hotel & Suites visit the local school every Thursday afternoon to read aloud with some of the children, to help improve their vocabulary, literacy and to encourage a culture of reading. Research shows that reading aloud with children is the single most important activity for building the knowledge and skills required to learn to read.
Impact:
Mantis No5 staff are embracing the opportunity to learn to read and enjoy having access to books. An on-site breakaway garden has since been created where staff can relax and read during their lunch breaks.
In Rwanda the children look forward to their reading sessions with the staff from Mantis EPIC Hotel & Suites which further encourages a love for reading and storytelling.
A safer passage to school
Project name: Transport for School Children
Property involvement: Feline Fields by Mantis
Location: Botswana
Challenge:
School children were walking 10km to get to school every day – arriving late and often exhausted.
Solution:
Providing transport for learners. Not only is it safer to drive them to school but also means they arrive on time and fresh enough to learn.
Impact:
Brighter more confident learners. There has been a noticeable improvement in school attendance as well as concentration in the classroom and better academic outcomes.
Digital access
Project name: Computers and Uniforms for School Children
Property involvement: Feline Fields by Mantis
Location: Botswana
Challenge:
Lack of access to computers for education at a local village school.
Solution:
Two computers were donated to the school and there is continued, ongoing support for the village school. In addition, since 2013, school uniforms for two children have been donated each year.
Impact:
Digital access to learning materials. The school children are learning computer skills and able to access the worldwide web as a learning resource.
Preserving cultural heritage
Project name: Cultural Preservation
Property involvement: Feline Fields by Mantis
Location: Botswana
Challenge:
A local school in Botswana wanted to set up a ‘Cultural House’ to pass on traditional, ethnic knowledge to young students to preserve the cultural heritage of the region.
Solution:
Financial assistance enabled the building to be completed and the ‘Cultural House’ became a reality
Impact:
Sharing of cultural heritage to preserve it. Learners are proudly introduced to their cultural heritage, taught traditional practices and ancestor’s values to allow them to nurture, live and hold onto this knowledge and pass it on to future generations.
Conservation awareness
Project name: Wildlife Talks for School Children
Property involvement: Feline Fields by Mantis
Location: Botswana
Challenge:
To highlight the importance of wildlife and ecotourism to the youth of Botswana.
Solution:
A series of interactive and educational Wildlife Talks were created and presented at five schools in the Kalahari region. The aim of the talks was not only to highlight the importance of wildlife but to instill an understanding of the role of ecotourism in creating job opportunities and as an income generator for Botswana.
Impact:
Positive feedback from the learners and a better understanding of the importance of the ecosystem, sustainability and us living in harmony with nature. In addition, a better grasp of what Botswana has to offer tourists and the role ecotourism plays in the economy of the country.
The lodge plans to continue these interactive and educational talks and even expand them to additional schools.
