How Wild Shots Outreach changes lives, one ambition at a time

The teachers of the world have a very special set of gifts, one of which is an almost uncanny ability to spot potential. They also know that it often needs help. So, while it was an enormous sense of shock which initially prompted educator, Mike Kendrick, to found Wild Shots Outreach (WSO) in 2015, he quickly understood that the potential of the young people in the Greater Kruger Area was equally huge. 

Not long after moving to the borders of Kruger National Park in South Africa, he realised that the Black families who lived locally had never been inside. “There are people on the edge of the park whose surnames are Ndlovu, which means elephant,” explains Mike. “It’s a very common surname, but they’ve never seen one. This means that a heritage, a cultural link with the wildlife, has been broken.”

It is a painful hangover of a time when these communities were forbidden to enter the park. However, its legacy lingers and, today, the barriers to entry are socio-economic. Education is hard to come by, with families often having to choose which children can attend school – when they can afford to send them. This, to Mike, felt like double deprivation, keeping kids from being able to move forward, despite their many hopes and dreams for the future – and extraordinary potential.

In 2017, WSO became one of the earliest partners of the Canon Young People Programme (CYPP) and, together, we put new Canon cameras in the hands of excited youngsters and took them into the reserves of the Greater Kruger, quite literally opening the gates to a new world. “I've realised how fortunate we've been to choose cameras, rather than football or sewing,” jokes Mike, a photography teacher with decades of experience. “Learning something new is really stimulating. but the camera forms a relationship between the photographer and their subject – and if that subject is an animal, a young person who’s been excluded from this amazing world of nature can form relationships with rhinos or other endangered species. It's just incredible.”

While the locations are breathtaking (WSO now also delivers workshops with CYPP and Natural Selection Lodges in Botswana and Namibia) the process itself is straightforward. Young people can apply to join workshops either through their school or directly, if they are unemployed. They commit to at least five workshops – how to use a camera, but also how to tell stories with it – frequently jumping on a truck and heading out on the game drives which are the hallmark of WSO’s work. It can be an emotional moment for the students when they finally hear and see the animals that are so close, yet so far away.

“One young woman burst into tears when she saw a hyena. I asked her why and she said, ‘because I'm happy and because of my grandmother.’ Her 101-year-old grandmother had listened to these hyenas her whole life but never seen one. Now she could take her photo and show her the animal she hears every night, from her village on the other side of the Kruger fence.”

But while these workshops give access to a previously inaccessible world, they also show students what they are capable of. The programme plays a key role in preparing them for the world of work. With support from WSO, some have gone onto train as guides and find employment. As Wild Shots Outreach matured, it organically changed shape, becoming a kind of incubator for CYPP graduates. Many stick around to pass on what they’ve learned to the next cohort, with the most passionate former students joining in paid roles for up to two years. “Then they'll go into the safari industry, guiding or hospitality, for example. Sometimes they’ll start their own business,” explains Mike.

One of the very first to do this was Programme Director, Rifumo Mathebula, who fulfilled his dream of being a teacher by working up the ranks and falling in love with the philosophy and mission of WSO. “Perhaps the thing that I'm proudest of is that Rifumo has taken over not only the teaching, but the management of the teaching,” says Mike. He's organising the programme, dates, venues and staffing – supported by this amazing team of young people that have come through Wild Shots Outreach and Canon Young People Programme.”

Today, Rifumo is a role model (“He has a David Beckham-like status in his community!” laughs Mike) and he’s not the only one. WSO has become a kind of a breeding ground for inspiring figures, who then go on to inspire others. “This is something we noticed and were glad it was picked up by the University of Northampton [who wrote an impact report on the CYPP],” Mike says. “These young people previously didn't have role models in employment, let alone in wildlife tourism or conservation. And, of course, being unemployed they don't have networks either. When you're young, jobless and at home without money, seeing somebody who's made it from your community is so empowering.”

When the students want to pursue their dreams elsewhere, the WSO Bursary Programme offers the kind of tailored support that dreams are made of. The rules are simple: you’ve been a committed student of WSO and you have a plan that you want to make happen. “So far, we’ve sponsored 56 of our alumni through further qualifications and training. That’s everything from a driving license – essential if you want to be a guide – through to university. We even helped one student to qualify as a private pilot.” 

For Mike, it’s about fostering pride, self-determination and self-belief in every individual. No two young people are the same and this underpins everything the Wild Shots Outreach and Canon Young People Programme partnership seeks to do – transforming the lives of young Black students, one ambition at a time. “It’s not something that naturally comes from elsewhere,” he says. “And what an amazing way to achieve it, through a camera, through photographs.” 

Learn more about the Canon Young People Programme.