Project Overview

Situated just outside the capital city of Windhoek, the main hub is the Sanctuary - but Na’ankuse is actually now a collection of organisations/sites rallied around a common mission (see picture below). We spent two weeks at the Sanctuary and one week on a project they call Kanaan, which is based in the south in the desert.
During our time, there were over 50 other volunteers staying in tented lodges or bush camp (their maximum capacity is around 100). We get assigned into teams and each team tackles different tasks on a rotational basis throughout the week. (picture of the task list).
There is a school onsite for the staff’s children to attend, which is also impressive and the students are very high-spirited.

Key Insights:

•The power of being more "hands-on". The work here is not just about animal encounters, we were also required to do the less glamorous work such as cleaning, feeding, nursing and data entry. We definitely got our hands dirty here (!), which helps build a much deeper appreciation of what it takes to run a sanctuary and look after wild animals.
The organisation has clearly experienced incredible growth and impact from very humble beginnings. They have pursued a strategy of expansion and have clearly aspired for high values (the picture below mirrors so much of Jim Collin’s work in Good to Great).
During our three weeks here, I would estimate that about 80% of the volunteers were women aged 18-30, and most of them solo travellers. This is an incredible achievement – not only to engage and capture the imagination of the next generation, but to also create a safe environment for young women to come from all over the world to contribute. It was so great for Sia and Anaya to meet so many altruistic young women passionate about conservation.
There is less community outreach (at least what we experienced) here, the Sanctuary and the sites are much more self-contained. Which felt strangely isolating and limiting in comparison to some of the other projects and initiatives we have seen.
We had less of a connection with the guides and co-ordinators. It felt a bit impersonal, and the sceptic in me would say felt more of a “volunteer factory” or was more about eco-tourism that gives a really cool and varied experience, and was less about conservation and restoration than I had expected.
Whilst reflecting on our experiences, there are some concepts that are analogous to my work in investment management that raised some questions when applied here (that I don’t have good answers to yet):
- There is definitely "real work" but I couldn’t help but question the additionality on an individual basis (ie does it pass the test of: would the outcome have been meaningful if we had not been involved?). I’ve often said that in the investment world, the additionality test is a really high bar (and maybe an unfairly high and one we only seem to use selectively in some use cases such as where sustainability is in play), and perhaps this is only to be expected given the size and scale of operation. Maybe we had unrealistic expectations of what our marginal contribution could be.
- When you first arrive, you see some animals in enclosures (such as baboons and meerkats). Which was a bit jarring, until we learned they are all orphans and rescues – and that the sanctuary has a policy of never turning an animal away. Which intuitively feels right and noble. But over the last two weeks I started to question how to think about the concept of value creation in this arena – what is the ecological value of keeping the animal in a cage vs the ideology of protecting a living being to end of its life because we can? And how should the ripple effect of giving so many (young) volunteers a connection to nature enter that calculus of value? This feels more like an ethics question, and I don’t have the right mental model of how to think about it. At the very least there feels like there is a conflict between the head, heart and gut of what the “right” thing is to do. I have more work to do to resolve this and understand how others think about this problem.
- In parts of my work with clients over the years, we sometimes end up discussing the question of whether they want exposure or ownership in how they want us to approach investing on their behalf. Relating to our time here, it felt that for us we wanted more immersion, depth, impact and to behave like real hands-on stewards; whereas I think the organisation is more geared towards a more varied experience and superficial exposure to different wildlife. A good lesson to figure out how we ensure we are aligned on this for future projects.
There were also some good lessons in strategy and management that I took to heart:
- Have they grown too fast at the expense of staying true to their mission? There is not an obvious dichotomy of "right/wrong" or” good/bad”, but what is the measure of their effectiveness and impact? How do they ensure that as they hire new people they carry the mission and vision as strongly as the founders still do? This is a common problem in all organisations – unless we are careful and deliberate in how we design our systems, everything seems to break at scale – and it was a good reminder to keep this front of mind.
- I was reminded that you can have the most aspirational and beautifully crafted vision statement or the best consulting slogans plastered over your walls, but unless you have the quality of people and you live and breathe it everyday they just become vapour. Nothing more than pretty words and charts that eventually become second-rate wallpaper. How do you stop them from losing their meaning and power?
I am so proud of the girls – they were by far the youngest here (there were no other families here during our time), and they were doing their fair share of work (and often more) and keeping pace even when the adults found it difficult. It was fantastic to see Anaya’s work ethic (particularly in food prep, cage cleaning and feeding), and how Sia is fearless with all of the animals and getting stuck into the work. We are getting to see so much more of the edges of their personality and character, and watch them push beyond their boundaries. If part of the reason to pursue this grand adventure was to build and test resilience then we are definitely doing that. Moreover, they provide a mirror for me and Div too, and we see so many of our traits (good and bad!) in them. They even stayed in their own tents, which was a good test of their independence. (They get a solid B!).
Our bond as a family is stronger too, having to get through challenges together and learning to rely on each other’s strengths and support. We also have had so much fun, and have lots of in-jokes and goofy moments that make us laugh (including my (excellent) impression of a pet tortoise; the girls miming songs (especially Unstoppable by Sia); and Div’s 5th leg obsession…).

What our day looked like

Early start - usually up at 6.15am to have breakfast at 7 and then get our team's morning assignments at 8am.
The morning activities usually run until about 12:30pm, and vary widely each day. We then have lunch at 1pm (followed by a possible power nap if you're quick!) before afternoon assignments are given out at 2.30pm, which run until about 5.30.
The work can be hard or messy (or both!), and everyone is expected to get involved.
Below are some pictures of the different tasks we got the opportunity to do, including: taking the baboons for their daily walk; looking after wild horses; spending time with students in the school; preparing food for the carnivores; helping with field research and logging the data and sorting images; enrichment activity for the cheetahs; and spending a night with the Rhino Rangers. Div also taught yoga at the school.

Who we met

From Naankuse - Benilee who is the volunteer co-ordinator and seems to run the entire operation. She was amazing, so responsive and always on. She could be a zen master, calm and collected inspite of seemingly constant chaos around her. Not sure she ever slept…
Fellow volunteers - so many wonderful people, I am sure to miss some out. Laxmi and Laljeet, Feline, Veronica, Ida, Alexa, India, Ethan, Archi, Isabelle, Lauren and Freya - thank you so much for the friendship, fun, games and for engaging with Sia and Anaya in such an authentic way. You have had such a big impact on them and made it so much easier for them to be engaged. We also many others from Australia, Mexico, Continental Europe and UK.

Namibia - Na’ankuse

Tokens (and our gratitude)