LOur unearthed community leaders program is a funded program undertaken in partnership with the Wilderness Leadership School and our partners in the Netherlands, the Kenchaan Foundation. The program aims to alleviate conservation challenges around protected natural areas by dealing with important social challenges such as poverty and unemployment.

We always find it strange that tourism is one of the biggest industries in the world and ecotourism is one of the fastest growing segments of that industry, yet around the world, people living adjacent to nature reserves and wildlife parks are some of the poorest.

The Unearthed Community Leaders Program takes young, talented people from rural communities and helps them craft a new future for themselves as social entrepreneurs. Creating their own livelihoods and supporting their communities. What we have learned from this program is nothing short of amazing. The experience of a wilderness trails and the simple plug in of giving people someone to rely on and a hand up is powerful.

As participants on this program are fully funded, we do have a few criteria potential participants need to meet to qualify

• Participants must come from areas directly next to or adjacent to a nature reserve or protected area with significant conservation challenges
• Participants must be unemployed and have a household income of less than R5000 per month?
• Participants must come from a rural community / informal setting rather than urban environments. Although deviations from this will be considered.
• Participants must be driven, have good English reading and writing skills, computer literate and have access to the internet.
• Participants must be committed to completing the entire program including various workshops, formal training sessions, wilderness trail experiences and one on one coaching sessions.