Our business is all about the way Desert and Delta Safaris CARES. Today on International Women’s Day, we are focusing specifically on the ‘E’ from CARES: EQUALITY.
Women play a pivotal part in the success of any business and we are so proud of our empowerment initiatives, we have Africa’s first and only all-women guiding team at Chobe Game Lodge. Our drive towards empowering women in the guiding industry of Botswana started in the early 2000s when management identified the lack of equality in this field and the missed opportunities. When we hired our first female guide at Chobe Game Lodge, there were only 8 qualified female guides in the country. Presently, there are well over 50, 20 of which work at Chobe Game Lodge.
Equality is at the core of how we run our business our involvement in female empowerment is something we are immensely proud of.
The all-female guiding team at Chobe Game Lodge
Your uniform doesn’t only represent yourself and your company – it represents your country. This ethos is plain to see amongst all the Chobe Game Lodge staff and Lesh, Chobe Game Lodge’s well-loved bright-smiling waitress from Orapa village, Central Botswana’s diamond country encapsulates this sentiment.
Behind the scenes at Chobe Game Lodge: An insight into Lesh’s introduction to Desert & Delta Safaris and how we have grown together.
Lesh didn’t think she’d last long at Chobe Game Lodge when she first started in 2015. She was terrified of all the wild animals. “For the first time when I was coming to Chobe, I was just planning on going back to my home village because there were many animals and it was my first time to see all those animals – I had only just seen them on the TV. But my uncle was here and he said “No no no – you have to learn. Then you will enjoy this. So I just listened to him.”
The first time she saw an elephant she was so frightened she dropped her camera and didn’t take one snap of the debut sighting. “The driver told me – don’t move, don’t even make a noise – the elephant will take you. He was joking with me but I was so scared I didn’t even take one photo!”
“Now I love to watch the elephants swimming – when they are crossing the Chobe river right in front of us from Botswana to Namibia. We see that a lot and I like that very much. They teach the small ones to swim, to cross the river – to go and get the food from another country. Because in the dry season the grass here is very dry, they have to go across to Namibia where it is very wet, to go and have green grass.”
Now surrounded by mongoose, warthog, squirrels, and the occasional lion pride which wanders through the lodge, she’s much more at home. Though she still prefers humans to animals.
Read more about the Desert & Delta Safaris CARES philosophy.
Lesh at Chobe Game Lodge