Mane Senwelo Jorowe joined the LEC team from the end of January to the end of May 2022 as our first Women for Conservation intern. Women FOR Conservation Botswana, which was launched by Kalahari Research & Conservation, is a programme designed to encourage and inspire local women across Botswana, and expose them to the conservation sector in practice.
LEC supports the initiative and is happy to host Women For Conservation interns at our project.
LEC has enjoyed having Mane as part of the team for the past 4 months, she has brightened the days with her sunny smile and laugh. “Mane joined our team with an open heart and a big smile” were the words spoken by head tracker Pogiso Ithuteng, “her positive attitude and keen spirit meant she was a pleasure to work with and fitted in well with the team”. Tshoganetso Ernest Gagosimologe, from community and education team, said that “Mane was one of the first local interns we have had in camp since I’ve worked here, we enjoyed having her as part of the team, she learnt from us but we were also able to learn from her when we worked together”.
It has been such a wonderful experience working with the LEC team. From working with the research team to the work with the community and education team.
Mane Senwelo Jorowe, first LEC intern “Women for Conservation”
Mane’s Story
Every day was a learning experience, I have learnt advanced data collection methods and how technology can be used to understand and comprehend wildlife dynamics to improve conservation efforts. At first, I was really mind blown by how San trackers are able to read tracks like they are reading a book, this really showed me how indigenous knowledge plays an important role in conservation. I have since been able to grasp some of their skills as well.
The efforts and contributions made by community and education team in educating the community and establishing projects that aims at improving their lives are outstanding. It has given me an opportunity to learn about community engagement strategies and allowed me to contribute meaningfully to the projects. I have been able to build relationships with the local community and I feel very humbled to have been a part of projects that improves people’s lives.
Living in LEC Khutse camp has been such an exciting time of my life. Enjoying the beautiful sunsets and exploring the beautiful Kalahari wilderness.
This internship programme is a good idea to provide training opportunities and empower women in conservation. I look forward to finding opportunities in the conservation industry with much better knowledge and experience gained through my time at LEC.
Many thanks to our sponsors at Soroptomist Rapperswil for supporting this internship programme, we look forward to making this opportunity available for other Batswana women in the coming future.
