Africa Travel WeekUK charity, How Many Elephants, launches its ground-breaking online platform to accelerate the impact of World Female Ranger Day.
To accompany the first-ever awareness day that supports female anti-poaching rangers, How Many Elephants (HME) has created an innovative online platform where female rangers, from around the world, can come together to tell their stories, access peer support, offer and receive advice, and share their knowledge with each other. The aim of this platform is to help them feel heard, united and unstoppable, whilst raising vital funds to support their work.
World Female Ranger Day (WFRD) has been created by HME. It recognises and celebrates female anti-poaching rangers, spotlighting Africa this year. Female rangers are bold, brave and resilient. They’re changing the game, and paving the way for women to stand alongside men at the forefront of conservation. But they need allies. Naturally, women have different needs from men. Through fundraising and awareness, WFRD aims to provide these women with the facilities, tools and support they need to do their jobs effectively.
HME has created an interactive platform, in support of WFRD, where any person, of any nationality, occupation, and gender, can contribute to this good cause.
The WFRD platform can be found at www.worldfemalerangerday.org.
The features of the platform include:
- World Female Ranger Day Challenge: a fundraising initiative where individuals, groups, businesses and ranger teams walk to raise funds, covering a distance of their choice. Businesses can create their own walking teams and can create their own fundraising page with a personal URL (website link), encouraging colleagues to come together, raise support and funds, and compete against other teams in their business.
- Meet the Rangers: supporters can read about, and hear from, the beneficiaries of WFRD.
- Donate to the Rangers: supporters can choose to buy boots, GPS units and uniforms for the rangers, or donate an amount of their choice.
- Send a Message to the Rangers: supporters can send a voice message directly to female rangers through an embedded recording functionality.
- Free Resources: supporters can download free social media assets, educational resources, such as school lesson and assembly plans for students aged 5-16 years old, and other fundraising resources.
- Blog: supporters can stay up-to-date with on-the-ground conservation efforts in Africa.
- WFRD Merchandise Shop: WFRD-branded T-shirts, hoodies, Tote bags and more can be purchased to raise awareness and support the female rangers.
In addition to the platform, there will be other avenues in which female rangers can receive the recognition and support they deserve:
- Female Ranger Closed Facebook Group: Female rangers, from around the world, can join the private WRFD Facebook group to share messages with one another, access resources and information, and champion one another.
- World Female Ranger Award: one female ranger per year will be granted this award, giving them international recognition. People will be able to nominate a female ranger for the award via the WFRD platform.
Through the WFRD initiative, HME aims to collate gender-specific data about female anti-poaching rangers. This will support HME and conservation organisations in identifying the needs of female rangers, in finding tangible solutions, and in building effective policies to contribute towards positive outcomes for female rangers and conservation as a whole.
HME is dedicated to supporting conservation efforts so that elephants, and other iconic species, can be protected. By creating WFRD, wild animals will have a greater chance of survival, as there will be a stronger presence of anti-poaching rangers on the front line.
Africa’s elephants are at an increased risk of extinction due to being poached for their ivory tusks and losing their natural habitats due to human activity. In addition to this, COVID-19 has presented further problems for wildlife, as tourism and funding for conservation organisations have been drastically reduced. The work of anti-poaching rangers is paramount right now.
“We are really excited that the interactive WFRD platform has now launched. We have had an overwhelmingly positive response so far. We are looking forward to bringing together female rangers around the world to celebrate their incredible work, identify the challenges they face, and provide them with the support they need through our fundraising and awareness efforts.” -Holly Budge, Founder of How Many Elephants and Co-founder of World Female Ranger Day.
HME supports the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically:
- No.5: Gender Equality
- No.15: Life on Land
- No.17: Partnerships for the Goals.
In keeping with these goals, HME hopes that the launch of WFRD and the accompanying platform is the start of a long-standing global campaign to support female-led conservation efforts and increase gender diversity in anti-poaching ranger teams.
WFRD and HME are encouraging individuals, business, sponsors and rangers to join this movement to raise funds and awareness. Visit the WFRD platform to choose a way to show your support, or email: gulp@howmanyelephants.org to find out more.
WFRD is co-founded by Holly Budge (Founder of HME) and Margot Dempsey (Head of Communications at HME). To stay updated and get involved in the online community, follow @worldfemalerangerday on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, You Tube and Linkedin, and @femalerangerday on Twitter, use the hashtag, #worldfemalerangerday, and subscribe to newsletter updates at www.worldfemalerangerday.org
Cover image: Julia Gunther
How Many Elephants
