African wildlife rangers risk their lives daily on the frontline of human-animal conflict. Standard insurance won't cover these unique dangers. SACTs Shepherd's Shield program provides a specialized safety net, covering medical, disability, and death. Your donation funds the annual insurance premiums of 350+ ranger families, allowing them to work without the paralyzing fear of leaving dependents stranded.
Rangers in Southern Africa face immense risks from poaching syndicates and dangerous wildlife. Many lack life and injury insurance, leaving their reliant families destitute if tragedy strikes. Furthermore, rural communities often view wildlife as a threat, escalating human-animal conflict. Lastly, vital field data is lost because standard notebooks quickly disintegrate in the wet, rugged African bush.
This Program covers 350+ active rangers with death and permanent disability benefits, medical/hospital expenses, and 24/7 access to an emergency call centre for medical assistance in the event of an accident. It also equips each insured ranger with specialized, waterproof field notebooks for accurate data collection. To address community appreciation of rangers and mitigate conflict, we will print and distribute educational A2 wall posters to rural communities and schools in each region.
Subject to funding constraints, this project will be expanded to include unprotected rangers employed by other pre-approved Animal Protection Unit organizations. Providing durable notebooks to record GPS coordinates of animal movements and poaching snares is critical for researchers and NGOs operating in Southern Africa. Distributing school posters will reach thousands of children, shifting cultural perceptions of wildlife, reducing retaliation killings of animals, and providing inspiration.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
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