Alumni Spotlight: Jennifer Slaymaker

Jennifer Slaymaker 26 visited Imire for 2 weeks in September 2012. She is from Essex and currently works as a Duty Manager and Swimming Coordinator at a sports center just outside Cambridge. She enjoys traveling and seeing the world!

I had been to Zimbabwe on ALERTS Lion rehabilitation project for two years previously and had loved it!!! I decided that I should try something new in Zimbabwe and started to look into different projects.

I have always loved rhinos and the project looked like something I’d enjoy. Once I looked further into it, I came across the videos ‘There’s A Rhino in My House.'

It gave the background story of the poachers that came in and killed rhinos, leaving baby Tatenda motherless. It showed how the Travers family took care of Tatenda, especially Judy.

The care and love that the video showed immediately drew me to the project. I liked the fact that it was a family run project and that they had such a passion for what they were doing.

The more I researched I realized how varied the project would be especially with the elephants, lions, hyenas, and game around the park. So I signed up for 2 weeks at Imire in September 2012.

My time at Imire was during the summer holidays and therefore the schools were shut. This meant that we didn’t go over to the school, which was a shame. But it was great meeting the staff’s families when doing different activities.

During my stay, we painted all the houses where the elephant and rhino handlers lived. This gave us time to interact with the families by playing games and speaking to all the kids. Some even helped paint the houses…and us!!

I can’t single out one person!! The elephant handlers Nkosi, Blessing, and Marapyia (sorry, not too sure on the spelling) were amazing!!

Their knowledge, love for their job, and willingness to teach was a huge highlight. Even on our days off (weekends), a few of the other volunteers and I asked to spend the day with the elephants.

Nothing was too much trouble for them and they were happy to have us along with them. The way they spoke about the elephants were as if they were their children.

The three guys made my experience so much better!! They still keep in touch on the internet and keep me updated with elephant news…and of course their football team news.

I had previously visited Zimbabwe so I roughly knew what to expect. The only thing I wish I knew was how good the project would be so I could of planned to stay longer!!

I wouldn’t say it has changed my view as such.

It opened my eyes to the other side of poaching and although us as volunteers look at the rhino handlers and wish for jobs like that…’walking around watching the rhinos’.

The bigger picture tells a whole different story. The reasons why they are following the rhinos and the fact that they are armed brings it home. It’s a real threat and everyone seems very aware.

There has been a huge increase in trying to make people aware of how bad poaching has become and I only hope that it starts to make a difference.

I can’t imagine my children in years to come looking through my photos and not knowing what a rhino is!!! I can't bare the thought of that!!