Projects

The Honey Guide Foundation support the communies by providing funds for projects that are in line with their goals of sensitive and sustainable development in the villages. These projects vary depending on the community needs.

Our communities

Ololosokwan
Location: Nestled in the northern Serengeti is a vast tract of land in which the great wildebeest migration passes through every year. This great wilderness land has been preserved by the Maasai people; nomadic pastoralists who seasonally inhabit the area. Olosokwan, the community HGF have had a relationship for over 10 years has some of the most photogenic countryside in the Serengeti eco-system, and a substantial population of resident game.

Ololosokwan Projects
The village is currently building a small 10-bed hospital ( a much anticipated and needed addition to its day clinic). The Honeyguide Foundation will assist the hospital with direct contributions for medical equipment and supplies, doctors' and nurses' salaries.

In the long term, the Hospital Fund will also pay for additional training for staff, as well as an outreach programmes to educate the community about health care issues such as rabies, HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

HGF are helping with the construction of primary school boarding blocks. Many of the primary school children have to walk up to 2 hours every day to school and back. The villagers have decided that every child should be able to attend primary school, so for those who live a long distance from school, a boarding block to accommodate up to 40 boys and girls is being built by HGF.

Piyaya
Location: Set amongst the massive Gol Mountians, the Piyaya villagers live in semi- desert conditions. These Maasai are semi-nomadic, constantly moving their livestock to find the best grazing. Every year they are visited by the most spectacular wildlife phenomena; the migration of the wildebeest. The wildebeest come to Piyaya to give birth! The village benefit from tourists who pay to come and camp on their land and experience this wildlife spectacle. As a result, the community now understands the importance of the wildlife.

Piyaya Projects
In the past the school children have had to run up to 2 hours to get to school in the morning and then run back home again. Sometimes they would meet Hyena on the way and have to seek shelter up a tree and maybe never get home that night! Together with the village we are building a primary school boarding block for both the girls and the boys and providing food and bedding for the children who come from far away.
Water is scare in Piyaya. The village have a spring in the valley, we will provide the means for the village to pump water to a central point, for the benefit of the whole community.

Machochwe
Location: On the north- western border of the Serengeti Park, where the Mara River bends slowly out of the park and towards Lake Victoria, a community live on the banks of the river. There are rocks for sunning, pools for fishing, a fat Amarula tree for shade, a hundred yards away, Serengeti National Park begins, spreading away into tall grass and low hills.

For many years the Machochwe community have been hunters, their historic hunting grounds now are a National Park and they have to come to terms with this development and changed their lifestyle. The Honeyguide Foundation is helping this community find alternarive ways to provide an income to their families.

Machochwe projects
Vegetable Supply for Tourist Hotels.
"We wanted to bring direct benefits to local farmers," says project manager William Joseph (Zungu) of this innovative project that brings high quality, organic farming to villages in western Serengeti in order to supply tourist lodges and camps. "It's important the local people know us, and we are not just strangers driving by on their way to the park." Working with Machochwe Ward Agricultural Officer Nyakabaya Dimafuru, Zungu visited several villages along the park boundary. Five were selected. Each village then chose a plot of suitable land and created a "kikundi" – a co-operative - to provide labour.

Sokwe/Asilia Project manager Gian Schachenmann saw the potential for tourism and suggested that the Foundation sponsor the building of a campsite and small, self-catering lodge; the village would learn to care and manage it - and reap the profit. The Merenga Village Community Lodge gives the local community a chance to attract the growing backpacker and mid price range tourist looking for alternatives to the park. The four guest bungalows, kitchen and lounge bungalows will be built entirely with local materials and in the local Wakuria style. Hiking in a nearby nature reserve, mountain-biking through surrounding farmland, swimming and fishing in the river are offered for the more adventurous.

Matemwe
Location: There is a small village of fishermen, who go out sailing with their fleet of traditional dhows every morning; they have been doing this for over a century. Matemwe is the community found in the northeast part of Zanzibar, this part of the island is well known for its natural beauty and proximity to the best dive sites on the island- the contrasting colors of the Indian Ocean, the white sand beach, the extreme beauty of the coral reef of the Mnemba Atoll and the wild bush vegetation require the Matemwe community to conserve their natural resources.

Matemwe Projects
The foundation contributes to the village's sea turtle protection programme, Villagers employ guards to protect the crucial Hawksbill Turtle nesting ground.
The biggest change for the village is the desire for education; the Foundation assists the community to complete the primary school building. Providing school materials like books, chairs, desks and blackboards. Now more than ever, the villagers understand the need for good schooling for their children.

Terat
Location: Terat Village is 40 kilometers from Tarangire National Park, the village bears mightily on the future of the park, for it lies in the middle of the Simanjiro Plains where thousands of wildebeest come to give birth each rainy season. The grass here is rich in phosphorous, a mineral crucial to lactating mothers.

Terat Projects
The Foundation support the village anti-poaching team, four game scouts have been provided with bicycles, binoculars, telephones and salaries. The scouts patrol each day, systematically covering six different routes and reporting any poaching, charcoal burning incidents to authorities in the Wildlife Division and in Tarangire National Park.

Currently, the bulk of the Initiative's financial support goes directly to the village to fund the construction of its primary and secondary schools. In exchange, the village has agreed not to farm on the plains, to allow the annual migration of the wildebeest continue to return each year.

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