Malawi tailor made vacations

Planet

Chelinda Lodge is currently central to discussions involving Malawi's Department of National Parks & Wildlife regarding collaborative conservation efforts which can be implemented in the region.

The Nyika-Vwaza Trust is an independent organisation that is involved in environmental and wildlife conservation in the Nyika area; Chelinda partners with the Trust in its endeavours. The Nyika-Vwaza Trusts are the only Malawian and UK trusts solely dedicated to conserving the precious wildlife and habitats of Northern Malawi, in particular the Nyika National Park and the Vwaza Marsh Wildlife Reserve. Although protected by law, these are delicate ecosystems vulnerable to the ravages of fire and neglect through lack of financial resources.

Tasks include implementing a controlled back burning programme, designed to protect the most precious parts of the Park, as well as road maintenance and control of exotic species.

With every booking, we donate funds to Helping Rhinos, our charity partner.
Helping Rhinos have been set up to create awareness of the issues threatening the global rhino population and raises funds to help protect them for future generations.

People

In Malawi, the Nyika-Vwaza Trust has supported a number of initiatives which have benefited the local communities who live adjacent to the Nyika and Vwaza. In addition, the Nyika-Vwaza Trust employs as many as 40 local people to help implement various projects. This brings much-needed employment to an impoverished area and means that local communities are at the heart of what the trust does.

At Kawa Mawa, each room is individually designed in partnership with Katundu Textiles, a workshop set up on the island to empower single mothers. All the workforce come from the neighbouring villages and have been trained on site so are provided with jobs and a career.

The donation we give for every booking to Helping Rhinos goes towards training for members of the local community to become rangers and ensure that there are more local people trained in the fight against poaching. This is important from a conservation perspective in order to preserve and protect one of our most important and prehistoric species, but also from an educational perspective as members of the local community are trained and offered jobs and a career - as well as educated about Rhino conservation.