DESTINATIONS FEMALE RANGERS | ACTIVE & ADVENTURE vision FUTURE
Kitaba Wadia Kapanya, Mountain Lioness, Tanzania
“I hope we’ll be an inspiration to other women in the local community and encourage them to follow their dreams to become a mountain guide. Being a porter or mountain guide was always seen as a man’s job, but I think this is going to change. Women can do any job if they put their heart into it.”
Nambeke Agustino Kundaha, Mountain Lioness “I believe
the Lioness Scholarship programme will help change opinions on gender equality. The number of female guides is still low, but this programme will encourage women to apply, and I have no doubt that one day there will be an equal number of male and female guides on the mountain.”
Kasia Morgan, head of sustain- ability and
community, Exodus Travels “Our vision is to not only help open the door to new opportunities for those undertaking the scholarship, but also to see these pioneering lionesses inspire many more women to forge careers on the mountain and continue breaking through barriers.”
PICTURED: Wildlife at the Borana Conservancy
PICTURES: Shaun Mousley
mostly working in farming and local enterprises while eagerly awaiting the return of tourists to the country so they can start guiding on Kilimanjaro, although two have been employed part-time by the college to help on other training programmes.
Q. How under-represented are women in guiding, and has this changed much in recent years? A. The guiding profession around the world is renowned for being male-dominated, though this is now changing in the western world. In developing countries like Tanzania, the situation is worse. Before CAWM took over guide training in 2019, there were 2,825 guides, only three of whom were female. Since then, the college has trained a further 1,216 guides, 59 of whom are women.
Q. What issues do women face in being a guide on Kilimanjaro? A. Culturally, women in Tanzania have not been encouraged to seek careers and are often disadvantaged, as they haven’t been able to complete a full education because of family duties. In addition, some employers have discouraged women from pursuing careers in guiding and portering due to the belief they aren’t capable of the work. Our lionesses are a shining example of what women can achieve when given the same opportunities as men. This is inspiring other women to believe they too can have a future working as a guide.
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JOYCE NEMWA, BORANA CONSERVANCY
Joyce works as a ranger at the Borana Conservancy, a 32,000-acre rhino sanctuary in Kenya’s Laikipia region. She joined in February 2019 as part of the conservancy’s
initiative to recruit more female rangers into the security team.
Q. What attracted you to train to be a ranger and what’s your favourite aspect of the job? A. I saw an advertisement from Borana recruiting for female rangers. I had an interview and was asked to do a 5K run, and was then selected to be one of the new female recruits. The highlights for me are going on patrols, interacting with elephants and rhinos, and regular training runs – but there have been some scary moments too! For example, the ranger team and I were once patrolling the conservancy and didn’t see a buffalo that was hiding in the bushes. The buffalo
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