Lewyn Maefala is the founder and manager of the Bush Babies Environmental Education program, set up by the Black Mambas. Besides educating kids in classrooms, the Black Mambas take children on field trips, like this one at the Masorini Bush Lodge, Phalaborwa in Limpopo Province.is an important one for the Shangaan Tsonga people, an ethnic group made up of diverse tribes many of whom live in the Limpopo Province of South Africa.
All of the Black Mambas have Samsung mobile devices which they use to document their work, communicate with each other and share their activities not only with children from local communities, but with a global community of virtual rangers and volunteers.“It's a really big project for us to educate people–we need something that’s going to perpetuate into the future and make a multigenerational impact,” says South African conservationist and anti-poaching specialist Craig Spencer.
in action. “The animals and the nature–it’s our heritage,” says Felicia Mogakane, a sergeant in the Black Mambas. “I felt I had to do something… to take part in protecting the animals.”