Meeting new people and unfamiliar destinations are some of the reasons why we travel. This again rang true when I visited Nambwa Tented Lodge and meant so much more than I could have imagined.

Text and Photographs Le Roux van Schalkwyk

African Monarch Lodges with its portfolio of Nambwa Tented Lodge and Kazile Island Lodge recently launched The Sijwa Project. This inspiring initiative aims to create a closed system in which not only the environment surrounding the lodges is protected, but the local community is also included in skill-sharing and empowerment – but more on that later.

Taking my seat on the aeroplane, a familiar face is seated next to me. Although we’ve never met, Michelle McLean is instantly recognisable. Coincidentally she is also on her way to Nambwa, and her reason for visiting is similar to mine: to learn more about the inspirational The Sijwa Project.

It is Michelle’s first visit to the Zambezi Region since 1992, shortly after she was crowned Miss Universe. She is in the country for the Miss Namibia 2019 pageant, but as an ambassador for solar energy and education, she’d heard about The Sijwa Project and wanted to learn more about it.

The Sijwa Project has a broad vision of empowering the local community by creating jobs, preserving traditional knowledge, teaching skills and conserving the surrounding environment through a variety of proposed activities. With the highest rate of unemployment in Namibia found in the Zambezi Region, and the inability of those in power to prevent the destruction of our resources in this part of the country, the owners of African Monarch Lodges, Dusty and Tinolla Rodgers, have carefully structured a project that will address these problems through a holistic approach.

This bold project will be multi-faceted and in the end self-sufficient. A sustainable approach has been chosen by African Monarch Lodges which runs throughout, from the newly installed solar plants at each lodge to initiatives empowering the staff and their families. African Monarch Lodges’ plans include setting up a cultural centre where the community can show their traditions to visitors and acquire or develop artisan skills, plus setting up a glass and aluminum recycling plant to turn every waste matter into a sell-able commodity and eventually building a pre-primary school. All the various elements of the project will be interconnected.