Every day one hears and can read of how the population of rhino has been decimated on TV and in newspapers and magazines – but nothing hits home more than witnessing this fact first hand. Over the last 4 years Diggers Rest – A Soldiers Retreat has been running 28-day tours into South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Botswana and Zimbabwe and each year we see fewer and fewer Rhino or, as in the case in 2018, not seeing them at all.
Learning of how the Rhino population in Mana Pools Zimbabwe has been devastated – reduced from 1000 down to just 9 – and finding ourselves in a position to help an existing breeding crash of 7 Black Rhino we could not turn our backs on this wonderful opportunity to give back.
As a philanthropic based and nature aware organisation, Diggers Rest – A Soldiers Retreat has a 4-pronged agenda for Veterans
- To keep supporting and developing our Veterans on a local level in Australia
- To continue to take Veterans into Africa to experience the vastness, extremes and resilience of the continent – to start the love affair
- To empower Veterans to be involved in a greater cause and using their acquired skill set in aiding and developing a breeding program to save the great African Black Rhino from extinction.
- To secure partnerships in conservancies where Veterans can be sent to integrate and educate members in the local villages on the value of keeping the Rhino alive and thus save it from the same fate as the Kenyan Northern White Rhino. They will be involved in fencing, game counts, capture and protection as well as the day to day running of the conservancies.
Incorporating Veterans who have travelled with us over the years and offering other Veterans who are struggling with integrating back into ‘normal’ civilian life and may have contemplated suicide, we are able to use this unique double-edged sword – helping veterans helping rhino – supporting each other’s survival.
