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Michelle Moyo and Leonard Ncube

IMVELO Safari Lodges, which operates around the Hwange National Park, has invested thousands of United States dollars towards developmental projects in Matabeleland North, particularly in Hwange and Tsholotsho districts.

The company operates in Hwange and Tsholotsho and its portfolio comprises Sidinda Fishing Camp on Zambezi, Bomani Lodge in Ngamo Forest, Nehimba Lodge and Jozibanini Lodge both in Hwange National Park and Camelthon Lodge in Hwange Community area.

While focused on environmental protection and empowering locals, the company also complements Government through projects in education, health, water and sanitation, infrastructure and other social services.

Last week Imvelo Safari Lodges donated a state-of-the-art microscope to Tsholotsho District Hospital for use in doing cataract surgeries, thereby making the service accessible and closer to people in need.

“The outreach clinics have benefited over 35 000 patients in dire need of such essential but not readily available services in remote areas of the two districts,” Imvelo projects co-ordinator, Mr Sambulo Moyo, said. 

“In addition, more than 300 patients have benefited from annual cataract surgeries conducted in these areas. All the services are provided free of charge to local communities.”

More than 42 000 villagers have also benefited from Imvelo dental optometry programmes since 2011.

“Last year we served 5 200 patients seeing there is an increase in the number of eye patients every year. To cater for these, we thought of having a dedicated eye microscope at Tsholotsho District Hospital,” said Mr Moyo. 

“In 2018, 2019 and 2021 we were partnering with some organisations to do the operations and we hope more communities will be covered.”

Tsholotsho District Medical Officer, Dr Mbonisi Nyathi, said the gesture was a huge boost and commended similar efforts by the Council for the Blind and Sight Savers.

“Bringing in such a machine means we can do surgical operations frequently and procedures can be accessed easily,” he said.

The latest intervention is a build-up to other projects the company has done for communities before such as the donation of equipment and stationery to three public institutions in Sidinda area.

Beneficiaries are all administered by Hwange Rural District Council and include Sidinda Clinic, Sidinda Primary and Lumbora Secondary School, as well as a women’s sewing club and a local social soccer team.

In 2022, Imvelo donated over 28 000 textbooks to 114 schools in Tsholotsho District after sourcing about 70 000 textbooks for distribution to needy schools.

The textbooks covered various subjects relevant to the new competence-based curriculum for primary and secondary education.

Mr Moyo said the hotelier runs a number of projects targeting different development needs including vulnerable children, conservation and health in Tsholotsho and Hwange districts.

Working closely with local and international partners, the organisation has built classroom blocks and furnished them in Hwange and Tsholotsho where it also carries annual conservation education programmes equipping teachers with tourism related skills.

It has also drilled boreholes, distributed sanitary wear to reduce pupil absenteeism at school and adopted some learners by paying their school fees and buying them uniforms.

Mr Moyo said their projects buttress the Second Republic’s thrust of leaving no one and no place behind in terms of development.

Working with Tsholotsho Rural District Council and the Ministry of Health and Child Care for over 12 years, he said they have been able to conduct high impact community outreach dental and optometry clinics in remote communities. 

Mr Moyo said Imvelo Safari Lodges also implements wider social responsibility programmes to improve the quality of lives of local communities.

“These projects include drilling new boreholes and repairing broken existing ones, building of classroom blocks, teacher houses, provision of school textbooks, teaching materials, stationery and bursaries and providing supplementary school feeding to scholars,” he said. 

One of the high impact projects was the building of the new Ngamo Clinic, which serves over 800 families who used to walk 18km to the nearest facility.

By erecting electric fenced wildlife sanctuaries in Ward 3 of Tsholotsho, Imvelo has sought to reduce human-wildlife conflict and promote food security.