|
Local Communities’ play an important role in the success of Tinga and its guest experience. We employ most of our staff, almost 90%, from the surrounding local communities which are found between Hazyview and the border of the Kruger National Park. These rural areas tend to have been overlooked by national government and therefore unemployment is high with little investment in skills development. It is therefore of great importance that all the lodges in our area contribute back into the communities and I can gladly state that this is an attitude shared by many. Tinga employs more than a hundred locals whom in turn have approximately ten to fifteen dependents which means a sizable contribution back into the micro-economies of these rural areas. We also outsource various services including laundry, pest control, firewood procurement and more, to small local business to assist in again injecting funds into the economy. Tinga offers its employees training in the hospitality field which is nationally accredited so if young stars wish to venture into other parts of South Africa they are skilled to seek work elsewhere which in turn creates a new opportunity for others.
The other work we are involved in is with our sister Lodge, Lion Sands, where we focus on improving the educational standards being offered as without education South Africa’s future is doomed. We, the More family, owner and operator of both Tinga and Lion Sands, have been working with Henna Pre-School for the past ten year. It was first started in 1991 and was named after one of the Indunas of Huntington under the Jongilanga Tribal Authority (the local authority which presides over most of the local villages adjacent to Lion Sands/Tinga). Henna Pre-School got off the ground after receiving a donation from the Roman Catholic Church and approximately 20 children attended the school in the early years. The school initially used mud-walled buildings for infrastructure and since the turn of the century, with the involvement of Lion Sands, our sister Lodge, and more recently Tinga better facilities have been built and the number of children attending the school has risen sharply to 250. Since then, Lion Sands/Tinga’s involvement in Henna Pre-School has grown dramatically due to the need for basic education and healthy meals for the pre-school children and we welcome all visiting guests to take the time during their stay to ask their Field Ranger to arrange a trip out to see the school as it is a true success story of what can be done if we all chose to make a difference.
|
