GRUMETI FUND PROJECTS FOR FUNDING 2024.
The Grumeti Fund relies on the generosity of donors to help us carryout our conservation and community programs. It is because of the generosity of our donors that we can continue to deliver impact. For this, we thank you and greatly appreciate your support.
TEACHING SUPPORT PROGRAM
$250,000 | Annual cost for 52 teaching fellows
The academic future of every child hinges on the quality of their primary and early school education. Every course, class, and academic experience students encounter after primary school builds on the foundation set during their early education. Students rely on the quality and accessibility of teachers during these formative years. Unfortunately, schools in the communities bordering the Grumeti concessions face extreme teacher shortages, leading to high student-teacher ratios that reduce students’ abilities to learn. In some cases, student-teacher ratios are nearly 200 to 1, jeopardizing students’ learning, hindering their abilities to build fundamental skill sets, and leaving them disempowered to ask questions, explore course material, or engage in extracurricular activities.
The Grumeti Fund’s Teaching Support Program addresses this challenge by placing 52 qualified teaching fellows into 26 local primary schools. In effect, the program reduces student-teacher ratios, improves student’s academic achievements, increases their engagement in school, and fosters the potential and passions of each student through individualized teaching and extracurricular activities.
AERIAL SUPPORT
$250,000
Annual cost of operating an aircraft for anti-poaching, research, & monitoring purposes.
CAMERA TRAPS
$7,500 | Annual cost
$200 | Cost of single camera
Camera traps help us monitor endangered and locally rare species like black rhino, kudu, and roan antelope.
ANTI-POACHING SCOUTS
$365,000 | Annual operating cost to deploy 80 scouts
$300,000 | Scout salaries
$15,000 | Equipment cost
$40,000 | Training costs
$7,500 | Uniform costs
The Grumeti Fund scout force is comprised of 80 scouts, strategically deployed across the protected area in twelve scout camps. The growth in wildlife populations in the Grumeti concessions demonstrates their value to the future of this ecosystem. In order for the scouts to do their job as effectively and as safely as possible, they must be supplied with with proper equipment – GPS, radios, binoculars, uniforms, first aid, vehicles, and ammunition – as well as high quality living accommodations with access to nutritious foods. In addition, it is critical that the scouts are equipped to respond to medical emergencies and are highly trained in minimum force defense techniques, firearm training, and so on.
ELEPHANT COLLARING
$60,000 | Annual cost
$5,000 | Cost to deploy one collar
COLLARINGCollaring elephants allows us to understand their movements, proving vital in our efforts to reduce human-wildlife conflict.
WILDLIFE WELLBEING
$300
Cost to de-snare one animal. Poachers’ snares are the primary cause of injury to wildlife in Grumeti.
RISE: GRADUATE STUDENTS
$84,000 | Annual cost of supporting RISE students
$12,000 | Tuition for one year of graduate studies at a Tanzanian institution
$6,000 | Cost of an in-person writing workshop for 10 students
$60,000 | Tuition for one year of graduate studies at an international university
$6,000 | Cost to add a PCR machine to the RISE lab
RISE strives to connect scientific research with conservation needs, while providing opportunities for the next generation of Tanzanian conservationists. Amongst RISE’s paramount objectives is supporting Tanzanian graduate students at domestic and international institutions as they undertake research projects focused on the western Serengeti. RISE’s current graduate students are analyzing the economic, ecological, and social impacts of electric fencing, elephant demographics, vulture nesting patterns, and the distribution of invasive alien plants. In the future, RISE hopes to support graduate students focused on wildlife diseases, bush meat markets, and the evaluation of riparian restoration efforts.
CANINE UNIT
$91,000
Annual operating cost of the Anti-Poaching Canine Unit, including training, staff salaries, canine supplies, and support services.
SCHOLARSHIPS
$1,300 | Tuition per year of secondary school
$4,500 | Tuition per year of vocational studies
Scholarships are awarded to students at all levels, ensuring that students at every stage of their education can create and pursue their dreams.
ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION CENTRE
$100,000 | Annual operating cost
At the Environmental Education Centre (EEC), students and their teachers are exposed to critical environmental topics such as deforestation, poaching, soil erosion and water conservation -issues that affect each student daily. The one-week course highlights the significance of a healthy environment and the importance of conservation through classroom and field-based lessons. In effect, the EEC builds students’ lasting passions and interests in the environment. Students have gone on to create tree nurseries, waste management systems, and debate clubs to further share the lessons they learned at the EEC with their schools, classmates, and communities
In 2024, we plan to host 480 students from 15 different schools.
RHINO RE-ESTABLISHMENT PROJECT
$3,490,000 | Costs associated with the Rhino Project
$2,650,000 | Costs of increasing the scale of the project
$215,000 | Equipment costs for the project & its teams
$590,000 | Annual staffing & operations costs
$35,000 | Cost of selecting & training project staff
Eastern black rhino once roamed freely and abundantly in the Grumeti concessions, but like many other parts of Africa, their population was decimated by poaching seeking their coveted horn. Refusing to accept a future without eastern black rhino, the Grumeti Fund, in partnership with the Tanzanian government, initiated the Rhino Re-establishment Project in 2007, and since, they have reintroduced the formerly locally extinct species to the ecosystem. Wild rhinos from South Africa and a few breed in captivity in the U.K. and U.S. have been translocated to Grumeti as part of the project, in effect, increasing the population of eastern black rhino in Tanzania by nearly 10%. With adequate funding, the continuation of the project would more than double the population of black rhinos in the ecosystem, securing a future in which eastern black rhino thrive in the Serengeti ecosystem once again.
