All female anti-poaching combat unit - in pictures

Zimbabwe’s Anti-Poaching Success: In between nursing, women hold the front line.

Adrian Steirn for Alliance Earth

Main image: Petronella Chigumbura (29) used her first salary to buy school uniforms for her children and pay for their school fees. Photograph: Artist/Adrian Steirn

  • International Anti-Poaching Foundation (IAPF) Founder and CEO Damien Mander fine-tunes the unarmed combat skills of qualified rangers. Mander a former Australian Navy Clearance Diver and Special Operations Sniper assembled a team of experts to train the women and lead their personal development. “The women displayed a certain toughness. A calm resilience I’m yet to understand, and perhaps some things in life are best left unexplained. What I do know is that is works, and these women, carefully selected and well trained, have the mettle to change the face of conservation forever”
    International Anti-Poaching Foundation (IAPF) Founder and CEO Damien Mander fine-tunes the unarmed combat skills of qualified rangers

  • Petronella Chigumbura (29) used her first salary to buy school uniforms for her children and pay for their school fees. The Akashinga model addresses poverty and development at household level, ensuring investment reaches directly to where it is most needed. Research indicates that women in rural society who have a salary invest up to three times more than men back into the family household
    Petronella Chigumbura (29) used her first salary to buy school uniforms for her children and pay for their school fees. The Akashinga model addresses poverty and development at household level, ensuring investment reaches directly to where it is most needed. Research indicates that women in rural society who have a salary invest up to three times more than men back into the family household. Support from the local community around the women continues to grow. 2000 people including community leaders, politicians and local villagers attended the graduation ceremony from basic training to celebrate their transition.

  • Abigail Malzanyaire’s (18) and Tariro Mnangagwa (32). Tariro is the youngest daughter of recently appointed Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa and joined the International Anti-Poaching Foundation (IAPF) team in December to show her support for the women and their role in the re-building of Zimbabwe. During her deployment she conducted training, active duty patrols and engaged in rural community project planning sessions
    Abigail Malzanyaire’s (18) and Tariro Mnangagwa (32). Tariro is the youngest daughter of recently appointed Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa and joined the International Anti-Poaching Foundation (IAPF) team in December to show her support for the women and their role in the re-building of Zimbabwe. During her deployment she conducted training, active duty patrols and engaged in rural community project planning sessions.

  • Akashinga is an investment into women and their families, the development of rural communities, neighboring wilderness areas and an alternative to trophy hunting. By empowering rural women the program also locally motivates poverty reduction, healthcare, skills development, children staying in school, sexual assault prevention, increased life expectancy, disease reduction and structured family planning. Employed, fighting fit and in charge of their physical and financial destiny, these women can help change the world
    Akashinga is an investment into women and their families, the development of rural communities, neighboring wilderness areas and an alternative to trophy hunting

  • Petronella Chigumbura (29) emerges from the water during a gruelling session in week five of basic ranger training. The personal development of the women in the Akashinga program evolves dramatically from the moment they sign up for the program and swap their civilian clothing for fatigues. By week 5 they have fine-tuned a warrior instinct few will ever know.
    Petronella Chigumbura (29) emerges from the water during a gruelling session in week five of basic ranger training. The personal development of the women in the Akashinga program evolves dramatically from the moment they sign up for the program and swap their civilian clothing for fatigues. By week 5 they have fine-tuned a warrior instinct few will ever know.

  • Future Sibanda (29), Petronella Chigumbura (29) and Margaret Darawanda (20) portray a softer edge in between patrols. IAPF has found that one of of the key benefits of employing women in a role involving law enforcement is their ability to deescalate tension with the local population as opposed to antagonising potential threats
    Future Sibanda (29), Petronella Chigumbura (29) and Margaret Darawanda (20)

  • Tracey Basaroukwe (19) absorbs the trigger pressure of her AR-15 assault rifle, ready to engage a target during training. The women who have graduated into this program and employed by IAPF received the same law enforcement training and fulfill the same role as a male ranger, learning skills such as leadership, patrolling, camouflage and concealment, first aid, dangerous wildlife awareness, democratic policing, search and arrest, human rights, crime scene preservation, crisis management, firearm safety and use, information gathering and conservation ethics
    Tracey Basaroukwe (19) absorbs the trigger pressure of her AR-15 assault rifle, ready to engage a target during training. The women who have graduated into this program and employed by IAPF received the same law enforcement training and fulfill the same role as a male ranger, learning skills such as leadership, patrolling, camouflage and concealment, first aid, dangerous wildlife awareness, democratic policing, search and arrest, human rights, crime scene preservation, crisis management, firearm safety and use, information gathering and conservation ethics.

  • Returning from patrol, Primrose Mazliru (21) switches from protecting nature to being a mother. The nurturing instinct of women has underpinned the success of Akashinga. Law enforcement and conflict resolution around the world has increasingly evolved to include women in key roles. In Africa and conservation however, men take most front line positions. Despite the fact women often do the majority of manual and household labor in Africa, Western conservation models have ignored their inclusion at scale.
    Returning from patrol, Primrose Mazliru (21) switches from protecting nature to being a mother.

  • Future Sibanda (29), Tariro Mnangagwa (32), Nyaradzo Hoto (25), Abigail Malzanyaire’s (18) and Vimbai Kumire (31 – front row) prepare to deploy. Tariro Mnangagwa is the youngest daughter of recently appointed Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa and joined the International Anti-Poaching Foundation (IAPF) team in December to show her support for the women and their role in the re-building of Zimbabwe. During her deployment she conducted training, active duty patrols and engaged in rural community project planning sessions
    Future Sibanda (29), Tariro Mnangagwa (32), Nyaradzo Hoto (25), Abigail Malzanyaire’s (18) and Vimbai Kumire (31 – front row) prepare to deploy. Tariro Mnangagwa is the youngest daughter of recently appointed Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa and joined the International Anti-Poaching Foundation (IAPF) team in December to show her support for the women and their role in the re-building of Zimbabwe. During her deployment she conducted training, active duty patrols and engaged in rural community project planning sessions.

  • The Akashinga model reaches far out into the communities, fostering good working relationships with local villagers as the key component in the overall strategy. Fighting illegal wildlife crime can be deadly business however, as armed elephant poaching gangs move through the region, penetrating local populations. Abigail Malzanyaire’s (18) primary role is to democratically police, but she and her team are trained to meet any potential threat
    The Akashinga model reaches far out into the communities, fostering good working relationships with local villagers as the key component in the overall strategy. Fighting illegal wildlife crime can be deadly business however, as armed elephant poaching gangs move through the region, penetrating local populations. Abigail Malzanyaire’s (18) primary role is to democratically police, but she and her team are trained to meet any potential threat.

  • Nyaradzo Hoto (25) and Petronella Chigumbura (29). A key to ongoing funding and expansion of IAPF’s Akashinga program will be to motivate enough people around the world that empowering women from rural areas to protect nature is a viable alternative to trophy hunting. The program is currently funded by investors who understand that unless areas that were previously set aside for and financed by trophy hunting are protected, significant amounts of biodiversity across the continent will be lost.
    Nyaradzo Hoto (25) and Petronella Chigumbura (29). A key to ongoing funding and expansion of IAPF’s Akashinga program will be to motivate enough people around the world that empowering women from rural areas to protect nature is a viable alternative to trophy hunting. The program is currently funded by investors who understand that unless areas that were previously set aside for and financed by trophy hunting are protected, significant amounts of biodiversity across the continent will be lost.

  • Victory celebration dance: Selection for Akashinga was opened exclusively to unemployed single mothers, abandoned wives, sex workers, victims of sexual and physical abuse, wives of poachers in prison, widows and orphans. By doing so, opportunity was created for the most vulnerable women in rural society. Having never received a secure form of income, they dealt with adversity and poverty within the marginalised areas of rural Zimbabwe every day of their life. Challenging ridicule and stereotype, they would seize the opportunity and return home as rangers
    Victory celebration dance: Selection for Akashinga was opened exclusively to unemployed single mothers, abandoned wives, sex workers, victims of sexual and physical abuse, wives of poachers in prison, widows and orphans. By doing so, opportunity was created for the most vulnerable women in rural society. Having never received a secure form of income, they dealt with adversity and poverty within the marginalised areas of rural Zimbabwe every day of their life. Challenging ridicule and stereotype, they would seize the opportunity and return home as rangers.

  • Support from the local community around the women continues to grow. 2000 people including community leaders, politicians and local villagers attended the graduation ceremony from basic training to celebrate their transition.All photographs by Adrian Steirn for Alliance Earth
    Support from the local community around the women continues to grow. 2000 people including community leaders, politicians and local villagers attended the graduation ceremony from basic training to celebrate their transition.
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