Foundation builds enclosure at Wildlife Sanctuary in Namibia.

We would like to say a big thank you to everyone who helped support our Painted Dogs appeal. Thanks to a percentage of all the sales from Pollyanna’s ‘Painted with Pride’ exhibition, along with the money raised by our prize draw, sales of tea and coffee during the summer exhibition and some very generous individual donations, we managed to raise our target of £8,700.00 – the equivalent of $94,0000.00 Namibian dollars. This money has funded the building of an enclosure (above) at the N/a’an ku sê Wildlife Sanctuary in Namibia.

Building the enclosure will ensure the safe and secure growth and development of 14 orphaned painted dog pups – which would otherwise have faced certain death – and allow their re-introduction into former areas of residence such as Etosha National Park. The enclosure will form part of a large breeding and holding facility to allow supervised pack formation, long-term bonding of release packs from captive-reared and wild-caught dogs and enable the painted dogs to be re-introduced back into former habitats, while allowing essential data gathering on the growth, ecology, breeding and group structure of the pups while in captivity. Following the release of the initial 14 pups, the enclosure will continue to be used for the rehabilitation and reintroduction of future rescued dogs.

As the pups, which were rescued in January, were growing very rapidly the sanctuary took our an emergency loan to construct the new camp for the dogs, as they were growing too big for their first enclosure. The funds raised by the Foundation have paid off this loan in its entirety, funding the complete construction costs. Lucy Hale, a representative of N/a’an ku sê thanked Pollyanna for the donation saying “The dogs are very happy in their camp now and we are delighted to be joined by your Foundation as our partner in Wild Dog conservation.”

Marlice van Vuuren, one of Namibia’s most respected conservationists, together with her husband Dr. Rudie van Vuuren founded N/a’an ku sê Lodge & Wildlife Sanctuary in 2007. N/a’an ku sê is committed to playing a key role in conservation and the protection of the Namibian wildlife, land and people. Their vision is an Africa where humans and wildlife can live and thrive together and their mission is to conserve the land, cultures and wildlife of Namibia and rescue species threatened by an ever-shrinking habitat. The sanctuary accommodates mostly orphaned and injured animals that cannot be released back into the wild. Several additional projects are also taking place including a Carnivore Conservation Research Project, a Bushman School and the Lifeline Clinic at Epukiro. Through each of their projects N/a’an ku sê provides an important source of employment and accommodation to Bushmen families