Angama is founded on the principle of running a profitable business to make a meaningful and sustainable difference to the communities that neighbour our lodges and the wildlife and land surrounding us. In a nutshell, the Angama team believes in Benjamin Franklin’s oft-quoted saying: ‘Doing Well, by Doing Good / Doing Good, by Doing Well’.
Each guest at Angama contributes a USD $20 per night donation to the Angama Foundation, a separate entity set up to support the communities that neighbour the lodges and the wildlife and land surrounding them. The Foundation is active through three fields of work: Education, Healthcare and Conservation. Projects are identified and prioritised together with the lodges’ neighbouring communities, the Conservancies, and NGOs with a track record of making an impact in their regions.
The Foundation works first and foremost with the Mara Conservancy in the Maasai Mara and the Big Life Foundation in Amboseli to ensure the longevity of the ecosystems in which we operate. The main fields of cooperation that have been identified in both areas are human-wildlife conflict, livestock predation compensation, rhino monitoring in the Mara, and elephant protection in Amboseli. Ongoing community education initiatives complement all conservation activities in these two areas.
There are several schools near Angama Mara and Angama Amboseli, all at different stages of development. The Foundation has structured its support to improve the general level of education offering and on a hierarchy of needs: classrooms, food, running water and security first, then learning materials and digital / eLearning initiatives. Developing scalable programs that will benefit several schools (such as making classroom desks or providing books) is another priority for the Foundation, as is supporting specific projects at individual schools — such as building staff accommodation at Emurutoto and new classrooms at Partakilat Primary in the Maasai Mara.
In the Maasai Mara, the Foundation is working to improve the health and welfare of the neighbouring communities by facilitating the provision of medicine and skilled medical advice. The Foundation has partnered with Angama Mara to build a clinic serving the community and lodge staff. The Foundation is also exploring ways it can help facilitate nearby communities’ access to water. In Amboseli, Kimana Town is well-serviced by clinics and a private hospital. However, the Foundation is speaking to relevant partners and leaders on how we can educate children and adults on healthy practices and lifestyle choices.
The Foundation is open to micro-donations facilitated through the lodges’ Safari Shop; for sizeable project-specific donations, please contact us. For those based in the USA, one of the Angama Foundation’s partners, The Nobelity Project, has created a link where guests can pay by credit card and obtain 501(c)(3) tax exemption, with the full donation going to the Angama Foundation.
