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Doing Well By Doing Good
As a company we believe in the motto “doing well by doing good”. Therefore, we have recently set up the Wolwedans Foundation, a non-profit trust funded primarily by Wolwedans and to a lesser extent by private donors.
In the coming years the Wolwedans Foundation is to focus on three key fields; Education, Conservation and Social Development.
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To support the objectives of the Foundation and to effect positive change, funds need to be made available. Wolwedans has committed to contribute 2% of its annual turnover, which equates roughly to 10% of our net profit.
The aim is to attract additional funding, both institutional and private, for a number of projects the foundation aims to realise.
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Education: We are committed to human resource development through education and training for both employees and members of the local community. To this end we have implemented the Wolwedans Education Support Program.
Conservation: Partnered with NamibRand Nature Reserve, we support
and fund projects that will benefit and enhance our local environment.
Social Development: In tandem with our Education objective, we are
committed towards the social development of our employees and members of our local community. We will endeavour to help ensure
better and more respectful living conditions and promote more positive
lifestyles.
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Wolwedans Educational Support Programme (WESP)
With some of the below projects already underway, WESP has had a very productive and successful start.
The Wolwedans Desert Academy
Now in its first term, the Desert Academy was created in co-operation with The Namibian Tourist Board (NTB) and the National Training Authority (NTA) to raise the skills level of the local tourism workforce and therefore the quality of our national hospitality product to a worldwide standard.
We were honoured to be the only lodge company to be approached to run a ‘pilot’ course for Tourism & Hospitality and we aim to take our role very seriously.
Currently with 16 bright, young students our Academy is running a 20 week rotational programme encompassing all aspects of the hospitality industry. Our students will be given hands on experience of all of our departments including Laundry, Kitchen, Housekeeping, Guiding, Administration, Maintenance and of course, learning first hand the front of house skills needed to serve guests at our Lodge and Camps, alongside our already experienced employees.
To support the hands-on experience, we have a temporary classroom situated at the main reception where the students are schooled in the theory behind hospitality. It is a truly comprehensive syllabus provided to us by the NTA, who after extensive research developed the course in line with the growing demand for highly skilled employees in this sector. The course culminates in an exam, and if passed, the students receive a formal NTA accreditation – In Namibia there really is no better start to a career in hospitality.
Our commitment is such that our long term plan is to scale up and build a separate new school building. Providing purpose built accommodation and classroom facilities will ensure a comfortable learning environment for our students and guarantee longevity to the programme. Desert Academy will train 12-16 students per annum.
Vocational Support Programme
This Vocational Support Programme has been set up to support our employees in their vocational aspirations by providing a ‘bursary’ style of funding for further education.
Currently we have several members of staff who have approached us for support who are now balancing working at Wolwedans, with either full time further education or comprehensive distance learning programmes ie. NATH (Guiding) and VTC (Vocational Training Centre).
Bursarys
The Foundation has also successfully offered some employees a bursary to advance their education with courses at South Africa’s Cape Technical and Namibia’s Polytech in Windhoek.
The Namibian Desert Environmental Education Trust (NaDEET)
NaDEET is a non-profit making Namibian Trust established in 2003, situated on the NamibRand Nature Reserve. It believes in environmental education to not only increase awareness and knowledge but also in developing eco-friendly attitudes and skills in Namibia’s youth.
The Wolwedans Foundation is a great supporter of NaDEET and regularly donates funds to finance week long programmes for children.Conservation
The Wolwedans Foundation has a close affiliation to the NamibRand Nature Reserve and will constantly work to support their interventions with funding and materials where possible. For example, with the ‘Adopt of Fairy Circle’ project, and the donating of materials for the recently opened ‘Vulture Restaurant’.
Also falling under Conservation would be the funding of further education for employees interested in advancing their knowledge in Eco-Tourism, Nature Conservation and Sustainable Development.
Social Development
In fact still in development itself, but plans are underway for the Foundation to support Social Development in the following way:
Housing Scheme
Another project in the pipeline is the Foundation’s Housing Scheme. Providing professional advice and administrative/financial support we will assist our employees and their families in finding suitable and long term housing solutions outside of the Wolwedans environment. Thus increasing their standard of living and encouraging stable and healthy life styles in the community.
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