July Updates

July Updates

Check out that lovely progress bar. Chengeta supporters are the best!

Just $1,975 more in donations until our matching funds are fully utilized. That will bring our total to $38,467! Our best campaign to date: You don’t have to wear a cape to be a hero. 

Rory Young has completed our second training session in Mali.

RORY: “I wouldn’t be achieving anything without all the sacrifice and support of the Chengeta team and supporters. These are “our” achievements, not “my” achievements!”

Unfortunately Rory became very ill with gastroenteritis and malaria the day before he was to fly home to his family. After IV meds and fluids he was able to leave a couple of days later than scheduled, but it will take some time for him to fully recover. The sacrifices made by Rory and his family are many.

Of course he makes light of it:

RORY: “Unfortunately, the recent BBC report on the earth-shattering finding (in my world) from Ethiopia to the effect that the smell of live chickens deters mosquitoes arrived too late for me.

I managed to go down with a bout of Malaria, nicely followed up by the dreaded lurgy (sometimes known as gastroenteritis). Other members of the noble poultry family, the quacks, have advised me that there is still more evil lurking within and have advised further blood sucking in order to identify this last member of this fowl trinity.

Whilst dwelling on my misery (and making the most whilst it last of every drop of sympathy I can winge out of my beloved) I am seriously considering entering future anti poaching missions with a chicken on my shoulder and a cork in my pocket…”

This was the first time we worked with Matt Croucher in the field. We are excited to continue partnering with him and his non-profit, Action Against Poaching. Can you imagine the logistics necessary to get his dummy/training mines and IED’s onto flights to Mali?

FROM RORY: “In ops C-IED and Anti-Mine Training in Mali with Matt Croucher GC.

Rangers in Mali need to know how to spot and deal with mines and IED’s to keep themselves, the community and the Elephants alive.

WILD Foundation are partnered with Chengeta Wildlife and Action Against Poaching providing in-ops training to the Malian Anti Poaching Brigade in intelligent and responsible methods.

This is possibly the most dangerous anti-poaching mission in the world. Rangers not only have to deal with attacks by poachers but also by terrorists and bandits, using IED’s, landmines, heavy machine guns, rocket propelled grenades. Last month one ranger was burned alive and his colleague shot outside their home whilst on down time.

Despite all if this, the answer still comes down to community. The reasonable man. So far the Elephants have survived thanks to WILD Foundation’s intelligent work with the communities. The rangers and other armed forces provide the necessary support to deal with the criminal and terrorist elements threatening both the communities and the Elephants they are striving to protect.

A model for all of Africa. Intelligent Anti-poaching.”

The photos in this post are courtesy of Angie Ra, (pictured above) a filmmaker documenting our Mali work and the work of rangers protecting wildlife across Africa. Angie’s Facebook page: “Boots on The Ground”

Celebrating Two Years of Non-stop Action!

Rory Young, exactly two years ago I first messaged you asking if I could help your efforts to fight the explosion of poaching that was wiping out wildlife in Africa. You accepted my offer immediately and just three months later we co-founded Chengeta Wildlife.

Thank you for opening my eyes to the horror you were facing and giving those of us far away from the front lines a way to take action.

Your intelligence, integrity, fortitude and overall badassery never cease to amaze. It’s been an honor to work with you.

We’ve been building an incredible team and I can’t wait to see what all of us accomplish over the next two years and beyond.

I raise my glass to you Colonel Young, and to the Chengeta team of supporters worldwide who make this work possible. SALUTE!

Live Ops Begin

From Rory:
In ops somewhere in Africa.. A little surprise party being prepared for some unwanted visitors..We have begun making arrests and seizing weapons. Several separate successful ops. Here are two suspects with weapons and contraband. Aluta continua!

Safely out of Zimbabwe

To say that I am relieved to see my family safe and sound in …… would be a great understatement. I can now explain the main reason for us leaving Zimbabwe..

On my way to do further training of Zimbabwe Republic Police and scouts in the Nyaminyami area I received a message from a third party to “report to Office of the President in Kariba” (OP is the Zimbabwe Central Intelligence Organization- the local secret police goons).

After a full and thorough interrogation I was told that I was “not allowed to train anyone and if I did I would be arrested”. When I protested that I had been given a two year residence permit in order to train anti poaching personnel, that I was training police with the authority of Police HQ and with the permission of the appropriate authority for the area,  I was told to shut up, that they were “above the police”, and that even if I had done nothing wrong they would find a reason to arrest me and throw away the key unless I stayed “away from the area and did no training in Zimbabwe”. No explanation was given and they clearly didn’t care if it was obvious that they are involved in poaching or trafficking. They were so stupid, arrogant especially incompetent that they actually bragged that two Europeans working for NGO’s in the Kariba area were keeping them informed of all activities in the parks and adjacent wildlife areas, and that if I did any anti poaching work with the police or parks that they would know immediately.

I ceased all anti poaching training, ops and other assistance in Zimbabwe and we only used Zim as our base of residence, continuing our efforts all over Africa, while we planned to leave in good time, staying well away from the Kariba area and not saying a word about Zimbabwe.

Unfortunately CIO didn’t stop there and we began to hear via third parties that CIO were making more threats against me, obviously to ensure I didn’t come back to the area. They wanted me and anyone like far away from Matusadona and Nyaminyami. I subsequently heard that another well-known international anti poaching organization was told to stay away and also threatened.

Aside from the worry that I might be “picked up” or disappear without my family knowing every time I landed at Harare airport on my return from anti poaching training and ops in other countries, we had to sit and watch the number of reports of elephants being poached in the Matusadona, Nyaminyami and other areas sky rocket to the point where there are now almost daily reports. Previously in one of the main areas we had been training and advising we had reached a point where there had been zero eles poached in many months.

We finally scraped together enough to get out and are determined to redouble our efforts in those places where we are welcomed and where we are currently enjoying unprecedented successes. However, we left Zimbabwe with heavy hearts.

Now you know who is behind the poaching of the elephants in Northern Zimbabwe and why we left Zimbabwe. Mugabe’s government is desperate for cash and this is why they are going to the extremes they are, such as tearing wild baby elephants away from their mothers and herds and sending them to China. What people don’t realise though is that Mugabe’s political party and his secret police minions are desperate for cash too. CIO needs cash to pay its secret informers who spy on their neighbours and report any opposition. That cash has to come from somewhere and whilst the official government departments use legal but unethical means to raise funds, the political and secret security appartus and often the army use any means they can.

They (CIO and ZANU PF) are nothing less than an organized crime syndicate. They are behind the poaching in Zimbabwe and as they become more desperate they are going to “allow” more of it. Don’t be fooled when there is a report of Zambian poachers being shot. That is just them allowing parks or police to deal with the competition. When CIO is behind it no one does a thing. With their tentacles reaching every corner of every village they could shut down the poaching in Zimbabwe in a day.

Zimbabweans cannot talk about any of this or even comment on this post for example. It is one thing to take on National Parks for exporting baby elephants legally albeit unethically but they cannot breathe a word against CIO and mention the fact that they are the biggest and most ruthless mafia in Zimbabwe.

Edit: Thank you for all the words of support. My work with Chengeta Wildlife will continue in Malawi, Guinea and elsewhere. Where there is a political will to fight poaching and support rule of law this war can be won!

As long as we can get on the ground we will keep fighting this war. If you can, please donate. If you can’t donate, please spread the word. We are an organization with zero overhead and all funds go to our work in the field.

Good, Bad and Ugly

The good.

• Rory Young will be coming to the US in September to speak before a crowd of 10,000 in Boston. We are also trying to arrange a TEDxBoston talk for him when he is here.  The speaking engagement was arranged by board member Joe Chernov. I plan to be there to meet Joe, Rory and hopefully Marjet Young.

• Rory and the rangers he trains are having unprecedented success in the bush. Rory has dialed in the time needed to do a proper training session. To do it right we need two weeks of instruction/planning and two weeks of operations with Rory’s guidance. So a typical training session now lasts 30 days and costs around $18,000.

• Kristen Kurczak Nightingale is an invaluable new addition to Chengeta Wildlife’s board of directors. She is an amazing person and exactly who we need on our team! She first contacted me through our website and said our approach to ending poaching is what has been missing and badly needed. She is extremely knowledgeable about nonprofits and especially nonprofits in Africa. She has traveled extensively throughout Africa and lived there for 10 years.  Kristen has been very generous with her time and expertise. She knows how to gain access to larger foundations and other possible income streams.

• We are attracting some immensely talented board members. I will do a full post about them soon. Kyle Murao is our new treasurer.

• Helen Rennie with ALERT has been submitting multiple grant requests for anti-poaching funding. Those requests take a lot of effort and organization. She does them with good cheer and is always supportive of my paltry efforts.

• Jamie Joseph is an environmentalist and a writer for Africa Geographic,Huffington Post, Virgin Unite and other media sites including her ownsavingthewild.com. This week she will begin covering Rory’s reports from our training camps. We will be gaining a great deal of publicity for our work through Jamie’s coverage.

• Sara Varon is a childrens book author and illustrator who has offered her services. She is going to work on creating a comic strip to be used to raise awareness on the plight of elephants and as a fundraiser on social media and t-shirts. The strip will be based on Alon Amit’s answer to Why should I care about elephant poaching?

• Some other amazing things are in the works, but I can’t announce those just yet so stay tuned for more.

The bad.

• Our bank account is empty. I messed up. I let too much time pass between our first two crowdfunding campaigns. In our first year we had two major campaigns, but I have learned we should probably have three per year.

• We were hoping the US Fish and Wildlife Service would help out with some grant funding, but I received an email from them last Thursday denying our request.

• I owe Rory $2,300 in back pay for the training session that ended in March. When the current session is over on May 6th I will owe him an additional $6,000. Rory insists that any funding shortfall comes out of his trainer fees. The rangers must have supplies, vehicles and fuel. He won’t cut back on those.

The Ugly.

• Our lack of funds couldn’t have come at a worse time. The Youngs are moving to the Netherlands in May. Rory’s sweet wife Marjet is under a great deal of stress. While Rory is away she is getting everything ready for the move overseas, packing up, deciding what stays or goes, trying to sell their vehicle and furniture, searching for good homes for their pets in Zimbabwe and finding a new place for the family to call home.
• Last week both of their kids were hospitalized with severe gastrointestinal distress. They were given meds and IV fluids overnight. They are back home now and doing fine.
• Rory’s father is hospitalized with a terminal illness and has been given only weeks to live.
• Rory has received serious threats and harassment because of our successful anti-poaching work. More on this later. (I so wish his wife and kids could get on a plane and leave tomorrow.)

I promise we are doing all we can to line up funding from larger organizations so we don’t have to lean on you guys so much in the future. That said, if you have any amount that you could donate, I would be forever grateful.

We have set up an easy new way to donate through our partners at ALERT.
Supporters in the UK can text APTR05 to 70070 to give £5
or text APTR10 to 70070 to give £10.
(APTR stands for Anti-Poaching TRaining.)

US donors can text any donation amount to (415) 319-6494. The first time you will have to fill in the bare minimum of information. In the future you can donate by simply texting the amount you would like to give to the number above.

Or donate any amount at chengetawildlife.org

Black Mamba Morning

Written by Rory Young

Interesting morning. We captured a poacher (2nd from left in the picture) and then just after taking the picture walked into a Black Mamba. The first two rangers and the poacher walked past it and then it came out of the grass and chased me and the ranger on the right in the picture.

Time for breakfast!